Angry passengers who landed at Heathrow Airport waited several hours for their baggage after a British Airways flight on Sunday 18 December, before some people ended up leaving without any luggage at all.
One traveller tweeted British Airways about the incident, writing: “@British_Airways T5 in chaos last night, thousands of bags did not come out. After hours of waiting, then told the baggage handlers had gone home.”
“@HeathrowAirport is there any way you can check if my baggage is there?,” asked another disgruntled passenger, before adding: “There were 3–5 hour waits last night in T5 across all flights that arrived and a lot of us were told to go home.”
After posting on Twitter that “@HeathrowAirport just lost a whole airport’s luggage,” a passenger also said everyone’s baggage had been left behind: “We all stood around baggage carousels for two and a half hours then went home without our bags. Absolutely incredible scenes.”
Christmas presents were among the luggage that didn’t appear and, as a result, one passenger complained on Twitter: “Off to see my friends and family with 1 outfit and 0 Xmas presents. MERRYYY CHRISTMAS.”
In response to the frustrated passengers, Heathrow Airport tweeted: “Baggage is the responsibility of the airline as they employ their own check-in staff, baggage handlers and ground team, Heathrow has no input into the baggage handling process.”
The Mirror reports that a spokesperson for Heathrow Airport also said that, as luggage is the responsibility of airlines, “this is dealt with by their ground handling crews who, among other duties, are responsible for preparing inbound aircraft and unloading bags and delivering them to the reclaim halls.”
Replying to a passenger who posted on Twitter about the long baggage reclaim wait, British Airways’ social media account said: “We’re sorry for any inconvenience caused, and we do hope you now have your bags back.”
The Independent has contacted British Airways and Heathrow Airport for comment.
