Imagine….
You’re about to operate the return leg of a night flight that is right up against the stops on Flight Duty Period limits. You already know that, as a result of various problems earlier in the night, that you're going to go well into ‘discretion’.
You’re currently sitting there, all ready to go, but waiting for an ATC slot - one which will allow you to go in about 10 minutes from now – you must make this slot !
The SCCM walks in to the flight deck and announces “Since we reminded the pax about the use of mobile phones, we’ve just had about eight of them tell us that they have packed their mobile phones in with their luggage and they 'think' that they've left them switched on”.
“Oh buggger !”, says you ( or words to that effect ).
You request the handling agent and ask if they have any idea of where these bags are located ?
They reply, after using a few precious minutes consulting the baggage manifest, that ( inevitably ) they were some of the first to be loaded into the hold - and so as such you'll have to drag hundreds of bags out in order to get to them.
You’re well aware that if you have to drag all the bags out of the hold that 1). you won’t make the ATC slot, and 2). it will take so long to drag them out, and then put them back in again, that the flight will then have to be cancelled - as the crew will be out of hours to operate it - as you’ll have maxed-out on the discretion that you have to extend the crew’s duty.
So what you gonna do ?