People always wonder why they don’t get their luggage once they arrive at their final destination. Many things may happen. The most common incident is for a passenger to have a short connection between flights where the ramp agents don’t have time to load the bags into the new flight. However, other things may happen, such as technical error or unfortunately, human error.
Take for instance this incident:
A flight arrived with passengers but was scheduled to depart empty, that is, it didn’t collect any passengers after landing. It was due to go to some other place and collect passengers there. We were only required to receive the plane and its incoming passengers.
So this flight arrived full. The luggage was stowed in two different halls. The ramp agents began unloading Hall Nº 1. Just at that time, two other flights landed which had a short stopover as opposed to the other flight which had a much longer stopover. Also, these two new flights where scheduled to leave with passage, which required more attention than an empty flight.
The ramp agents, understaffed and pressed for time did what they had to do; they left the first aircraft and headed to where they were most needed.
While the ramp agents loaded and unloaded the two new aircrafts, the first flight closed its doors and departed. Nobody however realized that Hall Nº2 didn’t get unloaded, and inside its belly remained 35 incoming bags.
When the now sweaty and stressed beyond belief ramp agents finished with the 2 short stopover flights, and headed back to the first aircraft, they found the parking space empty. Naturally, they contacted the coordination department and informed them that Hall Nº2 was still loaded. They in turn contacted the pilot and informed him of the extra weight onboard so precautions could be taken.
Now next time you lose your bag, remember, a million things could happen for it not to get to you on the arrival baggage belt. Perhaps it fell off the luggage carriage while being transported through the tarmac. Perhaps it was loaded onto the wrong plane. Perhaps it lost its tag. Or if you were among the 35 passengers today who didn’t get their bags, well, your bag was simply forgotten and never left the aircraft.
