Baggage handler shows the complicated way planes are loaded with luggage

Viral video has had 13.9 million views

A baggage handler has lifted the lid on how suitcases are loaded into the hold of a plane.

TikTok user Deeej, who posts as @DJSugue, shared a strangely satisfying time-lapse video of him stacking bags inside an aircraft, which quickly went viral.

“How 100 bags looks like inside the belly of a plane [sic],” he captioned the video, which shows cases whizzing up on a conveyor belt before he packs them tightly to fit the shape of the hold compartment.

His followers were fascinated, with one user commenting: “After decades of flying there’s gotta be a better way. Between one’s back and the claustrophobia, this seems so inefficient and painful.”

“Adding this to the list of things I didn’t need to see but happy I did,” added another.

“I don’t know what I thought happened, but wasn’t this,” said a third.

Some followers commented on how small the hold looks in the video, prompting Deeej to clarify that this was a smaller than usual aircraft.

“For everyone saying to automate it: on bigger planes we load the entire crates, it’s just in narrow bodies it’s done manually” commented a fellow airport staffer.

The Vancouver-based baggage handler posts all manner of aviation-geek videos on his feed, from showing how the airport bridge connects to a plane to sharing where staff put pets flying in the cargo hold.

But his most successful videos are sped-up footage of him loading luggage onto aircraft - a logistical challenge he compares to the classic Eighties video game Tetris.

He even set his latest baggage mission video to music from the game.

Video platform TikTok is fertile ground for travel industry workers, with everyone from cabin crew to pilots and Air Traffic Control staff giving their behind-the-scenes view of holidays in intriguing short-form videos.

It’s also stacked with handy travel tips, from how to cram more clothing into your hand-luggage-only bags to how couples can get a whole row to themselves on a plane.