Who’s Jorge Manalang? ‘Hero’ Chicago airport worker in video stops out-of-control cart

The “hero” airline worker who stopped an out-of-control cart from slamming into a plane at Chicago O’Hare International Airport was identified Tuesday.

The employee says he was “just doing my job.”

The dramatic video shows a catering cart spinning toward an airplane and nearly hitting workers before the employee intercepted the collision by hitting it with a tug. The footage captured by Dr. Kevin Klauer and posted to Twitter on Monday had over 13 million views by Tuesday afternoon.

The video even caught the attention of President Donald Trump, who tweeted “great job, just in time!”

American Airlines subsidiary Envoy Air identified the worker who “displayed quick thinking and a commitment to safety” as six-year employee Jorge Manalang.

According to the airline, the catering vehicle began spinning out of control when a case of water fell onto the gas pedal.

“As the cart swung closer and closer to the loaded aircraft, Jorge jumped onto a push-back tug and intercepted the cart at just the right moment, flipping it over and out of harm’s way,” according to Envoy Air.

Manalang is an instructor who’s responsible for training fleet service workers for the airline, officials said.

“I’m incredibly proud of Jorge’s actions,” Ricky Deane, vice president of the airline, wrote in the news release. “He not only prevented severe damage to the aircraft, but more importantly, he prevented what could have been serious injury to his fellow ramp employees or our customers onboard.”

But Manalang downplayed his “heroic efforts” as just part of the job, according to the news release.

“I was just doing my job,” he said. “Safety is our No. 1 priority and I did not want anyone to get hurt, so I used the pushback to stop the cart.”

This story was originally published October 1, 2019 at 3:54 PM with the headline "Who’s Jorge Manalang? ‘Hero’ Chicago airport worker in video stops out-of-control cart."