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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Travel
Mattha Busby

‘It’s a mess and I’ve never seen anything like it’: global lost luggage crisis mounts

Airport workers stand next to lines of passenger luggage arranged outside Terminal 2 at Heathrow Airport in London, Britain, on 19 June.
Airport workers stand next to lines of passenger luggage arranged outside Terminal 2 at Heathrow Airport in London, Britain, on 19 June. Photograph: Henry Nicholls/Reuters

When Jenn Choi packed her and her family’s bags she feared for the worst. After hearing horror stories of checked airline luggage going permanently missing, she bought tracking devices for her suitcases to ensure she would not have to rely on a critically understaffed aviation industry facing what could be its worst meltdown in history.

Lo and behold, all three of the bags containing the possessions of the self-help coach, her husband and their one-year-old child remained almost 10,000km (6,200 miles) away in Germany when they arrived in Cancun, Mexico, last week.

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