Emergency Landing: American Airlines 777 Turns Back To Buenos Aires After SOS Banging From Cargo Hold

by Gary Leff

Thursday night’s American Airlines flight 954 from Buenos Aires to New York JFK pushed back 4 minutes early – but turned around and returned to the airport after passengers on board the Boeing 777-300ER (registration N717AN) heard noises that seemed to be coming from the cargo hold.

Passengers and crew began to hear sounds while the aircraft was around 400 miles northwest of Buenos Aires.

Security protocols were activated but there was never risk to the aircraft. Instead, passengers were told that a person was locked in the cargo area and was using a blunt object to bang on the aircraft, trying to get attention for a rescue.

Coach passengers are often referred to pejoratively as ‘self-loading cargo’ and former Qantas CEO Alan Joyce wanted to put sleeper berths in the cargo hold to actually put passengers down there.

In 2018, a drunk American Airlines baggage handler actually did fall asleep in the cargo hold of a Boeing 737 and flew from Kansas City to Chicago. The year before, a United Express baggage handler flew cargo from Charlotte to Washington Dulles.

A man did once ship himself in a box from Australia to Los Angeles. That wouldn’t be pleasant, if only for the condition of some of those areas of the aircraft. After all, British Airways once had to instruct staff to stop urinating in cargo holds.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. Hmm, 3 hours early? Hehe

    In all seriousness, hope the person is okay. Kinda scary seeing the police like that.

  5. It was a ground crew member who got locked in there according to another BA blog, so the sounds were real. Not clear what his condition is but probably OK.

  6. @PDT, transport strike in Argentina. Airlines did a lot of one-off short notice rescheduling to avoid it.

  9. Two years ago ( Halloween ) American had the mysterious moaning and groaning from the p a system. This year it’s mysterious tapping from the cargo hold. Hmm. If it’s a joke, it certainly is an expensive one.

  10. Sleeper berths in the cargo hold is actually not a terrible idea as long as area is heated and made safe. Why not? It’s just basically another part of the plane.

  12. “ Two years ago ( Halloween ) American had the mysterious moaning and groaning from the p a system. This year it’s mysterious tapping from the cargo hold. Hmm. If it’s a joke, it certainly is an expensive one.”

    Maybe AA should pay for an exorcist.

  15. C_M, actually some older long haul aircraft’s flight attendant rest berths are in the aft cargo hold! Several airlines have taken the “cargo cans” that are fitted to the cargo compartment, put them together, installed HVAC, entertainment, communications and berths and received FAA approval for use. This area in the hold is pressurized, and has HVAC anyway for live cargo. As a pilot instructor, I was once offered “the dungeon” on a domestic flight (F/A’s can’t use it on domestic flights as the airline only carries domestic required attendants). I was pleasantly surprised that the SHHHHHHH of the jet, made it quite easy to take a nap! Don’t know how the attendants like it but…

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