Air Canada says worker who tossed carry-on luggage “will be terminated”

TORONTO – Air Canada says the baggage handler who dropped luggage from roughly six metres off the ground at Toronto’s Pearson Airport will likely be terminated.

The video, taken by Abbotsford, B.C., passenger Dwayne Stewart while he was on the plane and posted to YouTube, captures a worker dropping bags from a boarding gate to a luggage bin below.

Air Canada spokeswoman Angela Mah says in an email the “totally unacceptable” incident took place at Toronto’s Pearson Airport that day.

She says the actions “clearly contravened” the airline’s baggage-handling rules.

Mah says the airline is trying to identify the baggage handler and the person “will be terminated pending the outcome of our investigation.”

WATCH: Air Canada baggage handlers toss carry-on luggage off jetway stairs

Stewart and a friend were on Air Canada flight 137 destined for Vancouver at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport when they witnessed the incident.

He said it was only him and his seatmate that seemed to notice what was happening, but when he posted it online it generated a huge response.

“I think it’s shocking,” he said. “I think it’s amazing that it would occur to people, that it would occur to the airline, the baggage handlers, that it was OK to toss bags on top of each other from a 20 foot height.”

Mah added that company procedures call for gate-checked luggage to be carried to planes by hand.

– With files from Amy Judd and Peter Meiszner