A flight operated by the Turkish low-cost carrier Pegasus Airlines made an emergency diversion late on Saturday night after cries for help could be heard coming from the front cargo hold.
Pegasus flight 690 departed Istanbul at around 10 pm on Saturday, bound for Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, for what should have been a routine three-and-a-half-hour flight.
A short time after takeoff, however, it was reported that a voice could be heard shouting “Help Me,” which seemed to be coming from the cargo hold.
Fearing that a baggage handler was trapped in an unheated and low-oxygen cargo hold, the pilots made the quick decision to divert to Antalya International Airport on Türkiye’s Mediterranean coast, according to the Flight Emergency account on X.
Groundworkers rushed to search the cargo hold of the Airbus A321neo, but there was no evidence of anyone stuck inside the hold, and the plane was eventually cleared to take off and continue its journey to the Saudi capital.
The source of the shouting remains a mystery.
These kinds of events are not, however, unheard of. In 2021, a baggage handler in Mumbai crawled into the cargo hold of an Indigo Airways Airbus A320 and took a nap, only to then find that the plane had departed with him still inside.
The baggage handler was only discovered when the aircraft landed in Dubai, much to the surprise of local airport workers. The man had to be processed by immigration officials before being sent back to Mumbai on the exact same aircraft – although, this time, in the passenger cabin.
The flight departed Mumbai at around 2:25 am and it’s believed that fatigue may have contributed to the baggage handler’s deep sleep.
