Air stewardess reminds fellow cabin crew not to lift passengers' luggage after colleague broke her arm

An extra half kilogram or two in your luggage might not seem like much, but that extra weight might just end up being the straw that breaks the camel's back.

Or in this case, a cabin crew's arm.

While attempting to lift luggage into the overhead compartment for a passenger, the bag allegedly fell and broke the crew's arm.

A fellow air stewardess voiced her displeasure on the situation via Instagram stories. Her rant then went viral in Malaysia's Twitterverse after it was reposted there by a friend on Nov 23.

[embed]https://twitter.com/okedkama/status/1198067624732553218[/embed]

Apparently, a broken arm was just the tip of the iceberg.

In her spiel, the air stewardess related how cabin crew often suffer from injuries such as slipped discs and other broken bones from helping passengers hoist their baggage into the overhead compartment, despite being not allowed to. As a result, they have to take time off to recuperate from injuries, sometimes even losing their job because of it.

"If you can't carry your bag, why do you expect us to be able to carry your bag?" she ranted.

She went on to say: "Carrying bags is not our job. Our job is to make sure you're safe throughout the whole journey"

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While the cabin crew could always just offload the overweight article into the cargo deck, she explained that by doing so, they'd typically get a letter of complaint from the passenger the next day.

She stressed the importance of knowing one's limitations; emphasizing that passengers should check their bags in rather than bringing them into the cabin, especially if they know that they're unable to lift their own luggage.

Netizens chimed in with their own experiences in response to her post, sharing how they too have suffered stubborn passengers with their heavy hand-carry luggage. While the ground crew will do their best to reason with passengers, some travellers would still insist on bringing their baggage on board, some Twitter users said. 

rainercheung@asiaone.com