BA Baggage Backlog & 777?

[BRISTOLRE]

Whats all this then?
BBC News just reporting that a BA B777 was "chartered" to move ONLY baggage to New York. Naturally said baggage is part of the backlogged mountains of bags related to the aftermath of last weeks storm delays +PLUS+ instances of recent broken T1 & T4 conveyors.

Whats really going on here and would baggage be allowed to be carried in the cabin of an aircraft like this? Unless it is stowed up in the overhead lockers surely its illegal to carry bags in the main pax cabin as the Beeb suggests?

Picture from bbc.co.uk shows an BA minibus taxying past a pile of bags, oh yes, on the ramp presumably LHR.

[jettesen]

no reason why the can't if there are no pax on board. no difference to cargo airlines

[Flip Flop Flyer]

Cargo onboard freighters is secured in one way or the other; you don't just chuck in umpteen tons of loose freight, close the door and go aviating. If baggage has been transported in the cabin, then it should be properly restrained. Equipment for this sort of thing does it exist, and can be used without removing the seats.

That is, if they carried any bags in the cabin at all.

[brabazon]

It seems a bit odd to be loading bags in the passenger deck, wouldn't it make more sense to load all the bags into Containers and charter a full-freighter than use a 777 in this way? Or are the Beeb getting confused again?

[Dyce001]

Freight may be carried on a pax a/c without removing the seats - special holders can be fitted over the seats to accomodate and appropriately secure the cargo. A cabin crew member is also usually carried to confirm that the cabin is secure for take off and landing.

Only company I know of practising this system is bmi on the night mail run LHR-EDI-LHR with the Airbus A321.

Don't know if this is possible on the B777......but hope to find out when tranferring fleet.
:D

[FinalsToLand]

Stick the bags on a seat, fasten a belt round it, sorted.

F.T.L

[apaddyinuk]

I think youll find that its the belly that has been loaded with all the bags, including where they would normally only carry freight! They are using a 777 to do it as there would not be enough space on a regular scheduled aircraft once all the cargo is taken into account so instead they are just using a spare 777, filling its holds up and sending it across....there will be nothing in the cabin!!!!

[spork]

This BBC News item (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/3550894.stm) contains a lot of interesting pax comments. It's odd that a lot of pax are saying "Huh - imagine what would have happened then, if I'd flown with a low cost airline!" Well, my experience is that my bag has only ever been lost by flag carriers.

From this article, it appears that a lot of BA pax almost expect to arrive without their luggage, and not just because of a bad wx incident like this. One comment "As a monthly business traveller on BA to and from the Middle East I have come to accept that my baggage will never travel with me."

Is there ever going to be good news from BA?

[Ronbmy]

I used to be a courier and subbed for a firm working out of MAN. All we transported was luggage from BA and Aviance. 21 of us did the job every day and they still had to use other firms and taxis off the rank.

Used to get some good trips out of it. Work down to the south coast, call at LHR to refill with stuff up the east coast then into Newcastle for some going into MAN.

As for the times that BA 'misplaced' crew luggage when they commuted from MAN to work at LHR :O ...

[soddim]

Reminds me of a friend of mine who on overseas check-in with BA asked for one of his two hold bags to go to Heathrow and the other to Edinburgh.

"Oh dear, sir, we can't do that".

"Well, you did last time!"

[weis]

Oh yeah, they were loaded alright, all 2000 of them, on a 777, if you think thats bad, there's still another 2000 to be sent to other parts of the world. Anyone can see the "left overs" when boarding from Gates 1A or 1B. I had the privilege of working on a night shift when the disruption actually occured, not a pretty sight. I've never seen First class passengers walking about in their PJ's before.

Worst case i've ever experienced is a passengers (correction, First class passenger's) bags being tagged to Lagos when he was off to Dubai.

[Right Way Up]

Frazzled Frangatang
Looking at your reply coupled with some of your earlier posts I respectfully suggest you try an anger management course! God forbid I am on one of your flights when something happens you don't like!
:eek:

[spork]

No insinuation whatsoever frangatang, I was merely reporting my personal experiences. The news article reports other pax' experiences over which I have no influence. Just to clarify things for you, by “flag carriers” I did not just mean BA. The actual airlines that have lost my luggage: Alitalia, TAP, and British Airways. However, over c.30 years of flights I don’t consider that too terrible. All concerned have in point of fact returned my bags in the end, with some being obviously mislabelled. One took eight weeks.

I feel sorry for you that you can’t debate a point without descending to personal insults. From your petulance I assume you work for them and are feeling insecure. I would too.

[PPRuNe Pop]

Well, frangatang now knows that we have a low tolerance on that kind of language now - per Danny's edict on abuse and swearing, and I have deleted his post. The bad news is, if I spot him doing it again it will damage his PPRuNe health.