Reginald Gaskin normally just loads the suitcases or packages onto aircrafts at the North Carolina airport where he works as a baggage handler. But on Sunday, he ended up being taken for a ride after a regional flight took off with him still inside the cargo hold. He emerged — unharmed — over an hour later in another state.

On Tuesday, aviation authorities said they are investigating how Mr. Gaskin, 45, made the journey in the hold of United Express Flight 6060. The flight left Charlotte-Douglas International Airport at 3 p.m. on Sunday and landed at Dulles International Airport in Washington at 4:16 p.m., flight records show.

“It certainly does not happen often,” Kathleen Bergen, a regional communications manager for the Federal Aviation Administration, said in a telephone interview. She added that the department was “looking into the event.”

Another of the administration’s communications managers, Ian Gregor, said in an emailed statement that the department would determine whether the baggage contractor, G2 Secure Staff, has proper procedures to ensure personnel are out of the cargo hold before the doors are closed, and whether the procedures were followed.