A320
Time Pressure; Situational Awareness
Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown
Flight Crew Took Evasive Action; General Maintenance Action
Equipment / Tooling
Another Agent who was loading mail with me in the pit saw the lav service guy driving his equipment. He thought he was driving under the aircraft. I tried to lean and look if the he was driving under the aircraft that is when my badge caught between the belt and the belt loader ramp and drag my vest in. At this time; I yelled and then the other Agent pushed the emergency stop. We asked a third Agent who was putting the mail on the belt loader to start the belt loader to operate in reverse and didn't work. We tried to operate the belt forward and the badge felt off.It was safety concern. Many thanks to the Agent who did what he did to prevent any injury. The Agent and I decided to park the belt loader by the GSE shop with red tag attached to it. The Agent notified the Supervisor on duty about the action we took and he agreed.
During servicing of flight; I was in the rear cargo hold (pit 4) preparing to load mail with the assistance of my Lead Ramp Agent. He was in the door of pit 5 and leaned over the end of the belt loader to check on a lav truck that appeared to be under the aircraft fuselage. I heard him yell and turned to see his badge and vest caught between the baggage belt and the roller on the loader; and his face and chest being pulled into the belt. I immediately hit the e-stop button and the belt stopped. Another Ramp Agent ran over from the other end of the belt (the lower end); and also turned off the belt loader key. We released the Lead's badge lanyard and vest from his neck; and the other Agent restarted the belt. We attempted to reverse the belt to free the Lead's badge; but that was unsuccessful; as the gap was too small to allow it to pass back through. We then reactivated the belt in the forward direction and passed his badge through the same was it was pulled in. This inability to release by reversing the belt presented additional danger; in that if the Lead had been pulled further in before we were able to stop the belt; there would have been no way to quickly free him. After the incident we immediately reported to the Supervisor; who ordered that we immediately place that belt loader out of service.Additionally; the load has been known to pull in gloves; luggage tags; straps; etc. creating other minor near-misses and damaged baggage in the past. The ramp itself is rarely; if ever used; as it requires employees to bend over the end of the belt and lift bags while in a bent over position.
A Ramp Agent's badge and vest were caught in the belt loader pulley as he leaned out over it; but quick action by another agent who hit the emergency stop prevented injury. The loader would not reverse and was removed from service.