Wednesday 10 September 2014

Unattended Luggage – Fine, Jail or Ban?

Following on from the “incident” at Luton Airport this week, the authorities have now confirmed exactly what we all thought at the time whilst standing in the car park for 4 hours – some idiot has left a bag unattended. The news read:-

Insp Dave Ford, of the Airport Policing Unit, said that despite the inconvenience, all passengers remained calm and understanding of the situation. “The situation came about because of the combination of suspicious items in the hand luggage, an inadequate explanation and the fact that the passenger who owned the bag also told officers he had left it unattended while he went elsewhere in the terminal.”

For the full news item go here:- http://www.london-luton.co.uk/en/news/1/325/airport-operations-resume.html

So the passenger could not explain what was in his bag and admitted to leaving it unattended. How stupid and selfish can you get?……and what punishment will be handed down?

Yes, the police handled the situation professionally
Yes, the airport staff where superb
Yes, the airlines were their usual “we know nothing but when we do we will delay telling you”

The fact remains that thousands of people had their trips, leisure or otherwise affected. The airlines lost millions of pounds. Hotels abroad lost out by not having customers there for the evening. Businesses such as ours and our customers lost out again. All because of this one act of incompetence. What will happen to him? Nothing, that’s what.

It happens every year. When are the airlines going to think about banning passengers as a deterrent to others. Perhaps a short sharp jail sentence might wake people up? Failing that why not publish his name and contact details so those who lost out can take appropriate action to recover their losses?

Any thoughts?

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