Pilot helps ground crew load luggage onto plane as travel chaos rages on at UK airports

The clip, taken ahead of a flight from Edinburgh Airport, comes amid ongoing disruption at UK airports in recent months as airlines grapple with labor shortages and rising demand

A kindhearted pilot has been captured helping ground crew load a plane, while strikes and staff shortages continue to cause travel across Britain to grind to a halt.

Footage shows the Captain lifting luggage onto a conveyor belt prior to the Edelweiss Air flight from Edinburgh Airport.

A passenger posted the video on social media alongside the caption, “This is a doable attitude!!!”

The clip comes amid ongoing disruption at UK airports in recent months as airlines grapple with a shortage of workers and rising demand.

The extent of the chaos was revealed at Heathrow on Friday when photos emerged of a huge collection of abandoned bags piled up in a baggage hall, waiting to be collected.

Meanwhile, easyJet passenger David Benjamin was left furious after his luggage appeared to have been torn into pieces and his belongings damaged beyond repair.

And a couple, who were enjoying a trip to Lanzarote to celebrate the impending arrival of their first child, were left furious when their Tui flight home was cancelled.

Seven-months pregnant Ceri Burns and Chris Goulding, from Solihull, faced 24 hours of hell after their flight was delayed and eventually cancelled.

The couple were first told the plane would be delayed an hour when they arrived at César Manrique-Lanzarote Airport in Lanzarote.

Their wait quickly turned into chaos when stranded passengers began arguing with airline staff when it became clear they would not be flying home.

“We’re trying to get a refund from TUI but they say they don’t recognize our booking reference,” Chris said. “We also want to be reimbursed for the costs of booked flights and taxis. I have completely lost confidence in TUI.”

Separately at Heathrow, the scene of an “enormous carpet of luggage” was recorded by Sky News defense and security correspondent Deborah Haynes as she exited the airport’s Terminal 2 after an early evening arrival from Brussels.

She said: “The warning signs that all was not well were clear at baggage claim.

“There were clusters of unowned suitcases clustered around various conveyor belts.”

And at Gatwick Airport, Mr Benjamin picked up his suitcase only to find it was open at the front and the wheels were also damaged.

The 63-year-old said: “The only way I can describe it is by imagining putting a drill through a piece of fabric – it looks like it’s been torn and crushed.”

He added: “They obviously knew it was damaged because of the delay and how they carefully placed it on the front to hide it.

“Everything was crushed. The shorts above have been completely shredded. No conveyor belt can do that kind of damage, to me it looks like it was caused by any vehicle.”

Airports and airlines are under increasing pressure to cope with the influx of holidaymakers going abroad.

Gatwick plans to cap the number of daily flights to 825 in July and 850 in August, compared with 900 daily flights over the same period in previous years.

It comes after a busy anniversary holiday week, which saw more than 150 flights canceled across the UK on the eve of the celebrations.

Elsewhere in the travel sector, the RMT confirmed that strikes will take place on Network Rail and 13 train operators on Tuesday, Thursday and next Saturday, and on the London Underground on Tuesday.

General Secretary Mick Lynch said the union had no choice but to act after train operators had still not offered a wage when talks paused on Thursday.

“We have to fight this because we haven’t had a raise, we’re facing thousands of job cuts and they want to tear up our terms in an in-rail form of hiring and re-hiring. ‘ he told Sky News.

The Mirror has reached out to Edelweiss Air and Edinburgh Airport for comment.