He lost almost both legs
Workers at minus 25 degrees in the cargo room by Airbus locked up
24.03.2025 – 8:02 p.m.Reading time: 2 min.
An airport employee wants to stow passengers’ luggage in a holiday plane. Suddenly the cargo dream is closed – and the machine takes off. The man fights for his life.
In Turkey, an employee of the Istanbul Airport almost lost both legs through frosties. The man had accidentally included in the cargo -of -cargo shortly before lifting an aircraft. For an hour he fought for his life at temperatures of minus 25 degrees.
But one thing in turn: The 29-year-old Ali çelikten was just bought an Airbus A321-200 of the Turkish Airlines. In order to safely stow the luggage of the passengers, climbed into the cargo hold. However, since his colleagues had not noticed that the worker was still on the plane, the hatches were closed and the engines started, reports the British tabloid “Daily Mail”.
Çelikten hammered against the metal door and screamed for help, but nobody could hear him because of the whirring of the engines. Then the machine started and took a course on its target airport Athens in Greece.
When the aircraft reached its travel level of 11,000 meters, the temperature in the cargo room dropped to minus 25 degrees. The captive man desperately tried to continue to draw attention. Without success. Because he knew that he would not survive long in the bitter cold, Çelikten opened the passengers’ suitcases and looked for warm clothing.
Until then, no one had noticed his absence at the airport in Istanbul. The colleagues thought he took a break. However, when he did not reappear and could not be found anywhere, they looked at the recordings of a surveillance camera. It could be seen that although he climbed into the cargo dream, he had not come out.
According to Turkish media, the tower was informed immediately and the plane was diverted. Around an hour later, the plane landed in Izmir in Turkish. Rescue workers found Çelikts in the cargo -freight room – heavily hypothermic and with threatening frostbite. According to “picture”, he almost lost his legs. But that wasn’t all.
“I was caught in an airtight, ice -cold room,” said Çelikten later. “I could do nothing else than cry. Now I get psychological support and have lost my job.” He rejected allegations that he had deliberately remained on the plane to illegally travel – and instead sued his “forgetful” colleagues.
