The flight from Seattle to Los Angeles was forced back to the ground when the captain heard a banging noise shortly after take off.
After returning to Seattle, an employee, who worked as a ramp agent at the airport, was found in the front cargo hold.
This area is temperature controlled and pressurised, but the employee was still taken to hospital as a precaution after the incident.
Seattle based journalist Henry Rosoff shared a photo on Twitter of ground crew rescuing the trapped baggage handler.
It has been reported the employee became trapped in the plane when he fell asleep before take off, though Alaska Airlines are still ‘actively investigating’ the matter.
That's what we call a bad day at work!