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Nine out of 10 lost bags are gone for good, say BA staff
Rashid Razaq, Evening Standard07.04.08
Nine out of 10 bags lost at the beleaguered Terminal 5 may never be reunited with their owners, airport staff have claimed.
A security guard, who took photographs of the 5,000 cases being processed by just nine airport workers, said staff were struggling to cope with the backlog.
"I'll be amazed if anyone who lost their bag is going to get it back. I reckon at least 90 per cent of bags are lost for good. There are 25 baggage handling staff working airside - and just nine are dealing with lost bags.
"The rest are concentrating on the new bags coming in to make sure the situation doesn't get any worse," he said.
British Airways said the luggage mountain had been reduced from 20,000 with handlers manually sorting bags after the automated system was hit by more technical problems.
A spokesman for Heathrow operator BAA, said: "The system is now functioning well."
Reader views (2)
I'm not surprised that passengers' luggage can be deemed 'gone for good.' The Mafia have fingers in every pie in Italy - the criminal element over there must think that its Christmas with 100s of trucks and a huge warehouse of personal possessions to pick from.
- S Byers, Brighton, UK
What complete nonsense. Why would the bags have "gone for good"? Does that mean there are plans to put them into landfill somewhere because it's not cost effective to re-unite them with their owners? What a disgrace.
- Verena Schiessle, London
