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Baggage handler reports nearly being injured when a bag strap gets caught in the drive wheels of a belt loader and the laser beam that is commonly used to stop the belt loader is not installed on this fixed rail loader.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 1323052 |
| Time | |
| Date | 201601 |
| Place | |
| Locale Reference | ZZZ |
| State Reference | US |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | No Aircraft |
| Flight Phase | Other Pre-Departure |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Ramp |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown |
Narrative:
I was loading the rear pit of a flight and the belt loader I was using for this task was a fixed-rail belt loader. With the belt loader positioned correctly; I went to grab a bag off of the belt. Some free-floating portion of the bag became caught in the wheels of the belt right as I grabbed it; pulling the bag and my hand into the wheels that rotate the belt. I went to disrupt the laser sensor underneath the belt with my free hand; only to find out that the fixed-rail belt loaders; with the yellow bumpers remove this vital safety feature. Right as my hand was on the threshold of being crushed inside the belt; the piece of the bag that was originally caught broke free; freeing my hand as well. This was entirely too close of a call for me to ever feel comfortable using a piece of equipment that purposely removes a vital safety feature.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: Baggage handler reports nearly being injured when a bag strap gets caught in the drive wheels of a belt loader and the laser beam that is commonly used to stop the belt loader is not installed on this fixed rail loader.
Narrative: I was loading the rear pit of a flight and the belt loader I was using for this task was a fixed-rail belt loader. With the belt loader positioned correctly; I went to grab a bag off of the belt. Some free-floating portion of the bag became caught in the wheels of the belt right as I grabbed it; pulling the bag and my hand into the wheels that rotate the belt. I went to disrupt the laser sensor underneath the belt with my free hand; only to find out that the fixed-rail belt loaders; with the yellow bumpers remove this vital safety feature. Right as my hand was on the threshold of being crushed inside the belt; the piece of the bag that was originally caught broke free; freeing my hand as well. This was entirely too close of a call for me to ever feel comfortable using a piece of equipment that purposely removes a vital safety feature.
Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.