HR Desk: Sacked airport worker destroys plane with crane

A video has emerged of a disgruntled airport worker destroying a plane after allegedly being fired by his employer.

The footage emerged via video sharing site LiveLeak.com, and shows the employee hacking apart the plane, belonging to Russian jet company UTair, with a crane. The Sun reports that the plane in question, a Yak-40, is worth an estimated £3.5million.

The shocking clip has already been shared thousands of times; however some viewers are more sceptical as to its origins.

Whilst many reports claim the video showcases the fury of a disgruntled recently-redundant worker, some maintain that it’s merely a construction worker disposing of an old model.

Putting aside the authenticity of the video, the story does highlight the importance of workplace mediation- and how best to defuse potentially volatile situations when they arise.

Andrew Dane, mediation specialist and a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development, explained to Executive Grapevine why HR is missing a trick with mediation. He commented: “HR managers and departments could benefit by the early implementation of mediation in the workplace. Often mediation is only implemented when the problem has manifested itself and is more difficult to satisfactorily resolve.

“By engaging the services of qualified, experienced and accredited workplace mediators, or training in-house mediators to resolve conflict at an early stage, you can avoid costly adversarial litigation have a happier workforce and increase productivity and in the end augment the ‘bottom line’.”