A Los Angeles-bound flight has returned to Seattle after it was discovered a worker had fallen asleep in the cargo hold before take-off . Fourteen minutes after Alaska Airlines flight 448 took off on Monday , the pilot and passengers in first class heard screaming and banging from beneath the aircraft . 'Help ! Help ! Help ! ' the man screamed , according to one passenger . The airline said in a news release the captain immediately returned to Seattle-Tacoma International and declared an emergency for priority landing . The cargo hold where the handler was trapped is temperature controlled and pressurized , so he was not in danger of freezing or running out of oxygen . Scroll down for video . This is the moment an Alaska Airlines baggage handler was pulled from the cargo hold after falling asleep . Safe : This is the baggage handler who fell asleep aboard the Alaska Airlines flight from Seattle to Los Angeles on Monday . A passenger on board Flight 448 recorded video of the baggage handlder 's knocking that passengers could hear inside the cabin . Emergency landing : The pilot turned back to Seattle 14 minutes into the flight when he heard screaming . 'At some point the marshal kind of made himself known and started banging back and he yelled really loud and said , `` We 're getting ready to land , hold on to something , '' ' Troi Ge , a passenger on board the flight , told NBC News . Mr Ge , a sound designer from Burbank , recorded video aboard the plane in which passengers could hear the banging from the cargo hold . After the plane landed a ramp agent was found inside the front cargo hold . Video taken by KIRO 7 showed the worker calmly walking out of the cargo hold and putting on a high visibility jacket . He stood talking to airport staff for a few seconds before walking off towards the terminal . 'Upon exiting , he told authorities he had fallen asleep , ' the airline said . The worker , an employee of Menzies Aviation , walked off the plane and appeared well , but was taken to a hospital as a precaution . The airline says it is investigating the situation . The pilot could hear banging and screaming from beneath the aircraft as they flew from Seattle to LA . The man appeared to be well as he walked around the runway talking to airport employees . Alaska Airlines is investigating how the man managed to fall asleep before the LA-bound flight took off . Passenger Marty Collins told KOMO-TV in Seattle the flight was surrounded by emergency vehicles when it returned to the airport . She said passengers did not hear the worker banging or making noise . 'Nobody on the plane heard anything like that , nobody knew why we were turning around , ' she told the station . 'They just said we were fine and we were n't in any danger . ' Passengers were later told about the situation . 'They just said there was someone in the cargo hold and he 's been escorted off and taken away , ' she said . The flight departed again at 3.52pm and was expected to arrive in Los Angeles at 6.27pm , about 80 minutes late , according to the airline 's website .
Flight 448 had just taken off when the pilot heard banging from beneath . LA-bound plane was forced to return to Seattle for emergency landing . Score: 6