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Alaska Airlines Admits San Jose Airport Workers Played Games With Luggage

SAN JOSE (KPIX 5) – As many people travel to be with loved ones for Thanksgiving, a passenger at Mineta San Jose International Airport recorded video of workers playing a game, tossing baggage like bean bags.

The video shows what appears to be airline or airport workers playing some sort of a game. Luggage was tossed, for either distance or accuracy, as employees seemed to be cheering each other on.

An Alaska Airlines spokesperson told KPIX 5 that its employees were the ones tossing the baggage. The spokesperson said the luggage was a dummy bag, filled with magazines.

Alaska said it should not have happened, especially in view of passengers.

"This game should not have been played at the airport," Alaska Airlines said in a statement Wednesday night. "The optics of this video are unfortunate and we apologize for any confusion this has caused San Jose travelers or Southwest Airlines."

Chase Platon was flying from San Jose and shot the video before boarding a Southwest jet to the Midwest. He was angered by what he saw.

"I would be pretty mad, obviously I was a little concerned because I had just checked in my bag just earlier so I was a little peeved," Platon told KPIX 5 via Facetime.

Platon said he immediately uploaded the video to Southwest Airline's Facebook page with the message, "Um, Southwest, is this how you treat all our bags?

"You trust them with your bags, you trust them to get you where you need to go and you kind of just…you lose the trust," Platon said.

Southwest messaged back saying the airline appreciates Platon sharing the video and promised to look into the incident.

The airline told KPIX 5 late Wednesday afternoon that Southwest employees were not involved. Southwest and Alaska share the same terminal at the airport.

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