Where’s My Bag and the Other 34…

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.

Passenger folies

Just when I thought the summer couldn’t get any more crazier and I have seen all there is to see in the airport life, a family of 4 shatters my expectations.

I know that traveling is a stressful experience and the fear of losing one’s flight can take it’s toll on people’s judgments. But I’ve never seen such panic drive people to insanity to the point of endangering their lives.

This family of 4, took their time shopping in the duty free shops and didn’t hear the last call to board their flight. Once they heard their names being broadcasted through the terminal’s airwaves they panicked. They rushed to the boarding gate and once they realized their bus to the aircraft had departed without them, they became distressed. The boarding agents reassured them the bus will return for them and all they had to do was wait.

The passengers oblivious to the instructions of the boarding agents dashed through the gate, removed the chain at the gate and ran to the aircraft. They literally ran through the tarmac, duty free bags and baby stroller in hand. It was a scene from a movie. One of the boarding agents ran after them begging them to stop while the other notified airport security. The passengers could hear nothing, even when two police cars surrounded them from both sides. All they were seeing was their plane in the distance and they had to get to it, didn’t matter at what cost.

It was the most dangerous and scariest incident I had ever witnessed. In their hurry, they were crossing the main road of the tarmac, where planes, cars, trucks and other vehicles drove in constantly (most of the times ignoring the speed limit). One aircraft was being led by a “follow me” car to its parking space. The passengers didn’t see it. They simply ran disregarding anything in their way.

Thankfully, they got to the aircraft without getting hurt, thanks in part to the police cars that escorted them and stopped any vehicle approaching. When interrogated by the police, all they said was that they were afraid of missing their flight!!??

I’m telling you, something strange happens to people once they enter through the airport’s doors. It’s as if all sanity and composure is erased from them. They become disoriented and irrational. I can’t wait for the summer to be over, really!

Seat Guru

I had to giggle when I came upon this site after all the rant in my previous post on seat reservations. Alas, I try and be  helpful when I can. I’m not always grumpy, I swear!

If you like to reserve your seat ahead of time, Seat Guru  provides nice seat maps on various airline companies’ aircrafts.  The site mainly focuses on long-haul flights and large aircrafts, but there a few small aircrafts, like CRJ 65 and Dash 8-100.  These small ones are among my favorite aircrafts. Checking-in and boarding these planes is a breeze. Excellent opportunity to sneak in a book and read it during the “down time”.

Chock Scare

We had an awful scare yesterday. I’m still not sure how it actually happened. I was at the office at that time, photocopying some paper work when people started rushing behind me. The back office coordinators were nervous screaming at each other things like “contact tower control make them stop the plane!”, “tell the dispatcher to stay away!”. Some were hogging the walkie talkie, others were yelling into the phone and a few others were looking out at the tarmac with binoculars. I could tell something was not right. Throughout all the cringe worthy things I’ve been through in the airport, I’ve never seen so much commotion and felt people this scared before.

An aircraft which was leaving its parking location heading towards the tarmac to take off, was dragging from its landing gear a set of chocks. Chocks are rubber wedges that are placed for safety around aircrafts’ wheels to prevent them from moving while parked. The chocks’ rope must have been caught into the landing gear’s breaks and got dragged when the aircraft (a MD-80) began moving.

This is the most dangerous incident I have ever witnessed. If no one had noticed the chocks being dragged, I don’t even know what could have happened. luckily, the coordinators moved fast, contacted the airport control tower who in turn contacted the pilot. They were also worried on how to remove the chocks once the pilot was alerted. If the chocks were completely stuck, the engines would have to be stopped and the plane was in a dangerous position, outside of it’s parking space.

I’m not sure how the chocks were finally removed. Things were happening really fast and I couldn’t linger around the office to nose about, as I had my own flight to get back to. All I know is that the aircraft didn’t have to stop its engines and none of the ramp agents got hurt trying to retrieve the chocks, which makes me assume, the chocks fell off by themselves. Surprisingly the plane took off on time!