AN admittedly intoxicated American Airlines baggage handler fell asleep on the job and ended up flying from Kansas City to Chicago in the belly of a Boeing 737.

The employee, who works for American subsidiary Piedmont Airlines at Kansas City International Airport, was working on the ramp for American Flight 363 on Oct. 27, when he apparently took a nap inside the cargo hold before the flight.

No one noticed him missing, and the plane took off at 5:52 a.m. local time.

He wasn’t discovered until the plane landed at O’Hare International Airport and parked at the gate just before 7:30 a.m. local time.

This isn’t the first time an airline employee has been stuck in the cargo hold during a flight.

The most high-profile recent incident occurred in 2015, when an Alaska Airlines flight from Seattle to Los Angeles had to turn around after pilots and passengers heard banging from beneath the aircraft shortly after takeoff. A baggage handler was stuck in the cargo hold. He called 911 and said he was trapped in the plane but the connection was lost.

(SD-Agencies)