The Luanda-bound Boeing 777-300 was forced to make an emergency descent into Lisbon some 45 minutes after departing Porto, when staff at that airport realised the crew member was missing.
Airport staff reportedly became aware of their colleague’s absence after 40 minutes and worked their way back to his last known location.
Website Aviation Herald reported the worker had been “loading a box of passengers’ pets when he fell and became unconscious”, adding “the [flight] crew was informed that a ground worker had gone missing in Porto; the ground worker had last taken care of cargo loading and was presumed locked into the cargo hold of [flight] DT-655.”
Lusa News Agency added “the aircraft’s pilot was advised that a bag handler had been closed inside the baggage hold and immediately turned back from the south of Portugal to land at Lisbon airport where the man was taken to hospital for observation.”
The aircraft made a rapid descent into the Portuguese capital where the ground worker was found in the cargo hold, suffering from hypothermia, and was taken to a hospital where he is said to have recovered well from the ordeal.
Aviation Herald said the ground workers’ union reported the worker “passed out in the cargo bay while he was securing two animals.”
“It wasn’t his job to deal with live animals. The worker had started working that day about 90 minutes earlier and had attended to four aircraft.”
A report by Telegraph Travel elaborated that, according to data from Flight Radar 24, “the aircraft had reached nearly 35,000 feet, where the temperature outside drops to -55C, before being forced to turn around.”
An investigation into the incident has been launched. The flight was cleared to carry on its journey to Angola.