Ops! Sleeping Baggage Handler Force Plane To Make Emergency Landing

After less than 10 minutes in the air, an Alaska Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing on Monday when a napping baggage handler woke up in the plane's cargo hold and began banging and screaming.

In an official statement, the airline confirmed that the L.A.-bound flight returned to Seattle when the pilot "reported hearing banging from beneath the aircraft" immediately after takeoff. According to KIRO-TV reporter Alison Grande, passengers also heard screaming.

Upon landing, an airport employee walked out of the plane's pressurized and temperature-controlled front cargo hold, reportedly telling authorities "he had fallen asleep." The man was then taken to a local hospital as a precaution and released shortly afterward.

Alaska Airlines says they are "actively investigating" the incident.

[gawker]