Thank You Bonnie Lass. The main threads associated with this tragedy are very busy. Anyone who wants to read them should do so but comments need to be very few and far between.

This is very moving...and beautifully respectful by all involved.....the ATC recording for their arrival and airport fire service reception

To the Airmen Who Did Not Return
Above the fields, the clouds still drift,
white sails on a windless sea of blue;
yet somewhere higher, beyond our sight,
your wings have found a truer sky.
Engines once roared like iron hearts,
beating against the dark and the cold;
now silence holds the shape of your flight,
traced in the memory of contrails fading.
We walk the runways where grass has grown,
touch rusted rails, read names in stone;
each letter a spark, each date a wound,
each story a lantern we keep alight.
The wind still carries the scent of fuel,
the echo of orders, the laughter before dawn;
and in that wind, we hear you—
not gone, but circling home forever.

RIP Antoine and Mackenzie

There are various news media reports also of people lining the streets for these two young men on their final journeys, including this one.....it should be noted that both young men were aboard the aircraft in this clip, they were repatirated to different airports aboard the same aircraft, this is not made clear in the clip

In a list of suggested links on my desktop PC today, I was amused to se this headline:
Turns out to be Condé Nast Traveller. Which was not a surprise! Do I tell them that this has ALWAYS been a status symbol ...?

I guess it's one of their standard articles they recycle every few years for their advertisers. This one is linked to social media, which is another reliable source.

Surely when you pass through Thiefrow you want to have your luggage look at cheap as possible as if there's nothing in there worth stealing?

The only baggage I've ever had stolen was a globe-trotter. Fortunately it and the contents were insured. I still had to go through the hassle of going to a Garda station and making a statement.

The last time I bought luggage was during the pandemic when luggage was really cheap (no-one was travelling) and what I bought then will probably see me out.

I have a truly hideous suitcase these days - it screams LO-Rent. Recently we had luggage not make a very tight connection. When I showed the Agent a picture of the case when he asked for a desciription he said - "that's one we'll have no trouble finding - it looks awful".

I 've often thought of finding one of those E Asian red & white sack type bags - but I feel I'd be a target for customs trying to pass myself off as the owner of one of them.

I did draw attention when I bought my first suitcase with wheels and used it through UK trains and LHR in the summer of 1975! I have no idea what the brand was.

For many years I bought Delsey until they became too expensive. Then I bought Samsonite, of which one mid-size case remains as airport staff proved themselves ever more capable of destruction. I now buy a no-name brand, soft sided, in a discount sale. As long as it is the right size - everything now is a spinner - and I use it until the airports break a wheel. They cost around
£80/90 and last 4 or 5 years. Bargain. I am currently looking to replace the current one. I use an old fashioned coloured strap and a swing tag that is unique.

I agree Asturias56 about the red and white sacks, you also see them across Africa.

I have a choice of suitcases.....so-called normal / plain (a black one (soft side), a silver one (hard side), a metallic wine one (hard side) ), then I have a not so normal, in your face, screams at you one that I use when flying - mainly so that it stands out on the baggage carousel - not found another quite like it on any of my travels, it has stripes all over it in various shades of ivory, burgundy, blue and purple hard sided and, along with the dayglo pink and orange straps, anyone thinking or trying to nick it would be seen from several miles away.

I used to have a plain beige one, but that died in Madrid. It had been left behind by Spanish baggage handlers on the way home from Buenos Aires. When it finally arrived home via British Midland and a taxi some days after I had got home it looked like it had been the victim of a B747 hit and run accident, it was totally crushed, in pieces and with an enormous tyre mark across it. Neither the case (which was a hard shell) or the contents survived, I gathered all the bits and binned the lot.

Which begs the question.....which is better.....hard or soft?

I find that soft sided suitcases offer no structural rigidity unless stuffed to capacity. Therefore my preferred option is hard sided.

Same here. You choose how your goods withstand the shocks of being transported, with soft-sided the baggage handlers do,

I travel light. Same bag for everything, but straps to reduce the size for aeroplane if necessary. Shoulder straps and a handle. Max size is 40 litres and about 25 strapped down. Works really well on trains and like a rucksack for walking. It weighs about 6kg full, maybe 8 at 40l. It's not quite big enough for heavy winter clothes, so I have to wear the outer gear. I have a little waist pouch for phone and documents. You don't need more unless you are taking very elegant evening wear. I use launderettes.

Yes, the soft sides can get trashed but having two hard side (both a Delsey and a Samsonite) trashed - not so keen to spend that kind of money again! The only time that I was able to get compensation was when they returned the case and agreed that it was broken. But that was softsided and is still in use. :rolleyes:

Technology has probably moved on, but I do recall having a soft sided suitcase many years ago, that was unloaded during a torrential downpour in some long forgotten airport. I do, however, still recall soending two days trying to dry out the contents of said suitcase !

I'm intrigued what pax carry in suitcases that can get trashed?
It seems I've been lucky as apart from a wheel disappearing and the occasional wet suitcase, I've never permanently lost one or had one trashed in getting on for 60 years of very frequent travelling.

I have two soft-sided cases, but they have a wire mesh embedded in the material. Best cases I have ever had, and undamaged after several years.

Soft case for carry one, hard shell for checked. Samsonite has been my go to for a long time. 20+ years of solid travelling. Yes, the hard shells are a tad heavier but they don't wet through in the rain. :)
I think if the bag falls off the trolley enroute to/from the aircraft, that's when the damage can really happen.
I put AirTags in them so I can see where it is. (within reason).

My beige Travelpro hard sided case had just completed a 2 week long Christmas / New Year cruise from Valparaiso to Buenos Aires with me. The contents were the usual for a 2 week holiday plus the proverbial "posh frocks" etc. The initial flight from EZE to MAD with Iberia was late arriving in MAD which meant the transfer to the Iberia MAD - LHR flight was much tighter than it should have been (should have been a 3 hour gap, ended up being just over 1 hour). Somewhere tween getting the suitcase off the EZE flight and supposedly boarding the LHR flight the suitcase was brutally run over by something very heavy that had tyres of at least 60cm wide. It did not make the flight to LHR. The remains of the suitcase and contents were bagged, tagged and sent directly to MAN 3 days after I had flown from LHR to MAN with British Midland. I had received a "sorry but your suitcase is on an extended holiday" notice just before boarding the LHR to MAN flight. The bagged and tagged remains arrived home 4 days after their hit and run accident in MAD courtesy of British Midland and a taxi. The bag of suitcase bits had a big label on it "British Midland apologise for the late arrival of your suitcase"....it wasn't British Midland's fault at all, it was someone at MAD who ran it over. (Out of curiosity I reassembled the suitcase and there was a tyre mark across it of at least 60cm width so whatever attacked the suitcase was very large and very heavy).

I have gone through a few makes over the years from Delsey, Samsonite , Tumi, Briggs & Riley.

Just replaced last with Green B&R bags balletic nylon pair affectionately known as the Luggage and Trunkee from Terry Pratchet and so far have not had any issues and quite distinctive on the carousel.

Icarus 1

When there was a Heathrow Terminal 1 with a domestic carousel landside, I was waiting with a colleague from Edinburgh when there emerged onto the carousel a baggage handle. Then a piece of suitcase (soft-sided). Then a pair of knickers. Then we were joined by an FA who watched with detachment as various other items appeared on the carousel. She had a fit of the giggles as the knickers came around. The poor girl whose personal items were on display must have been mortified.

Hard-sided suitcases for me.

Hmmm - I was once collecting luggage in Berlin from a BA flight - three v large hard sided, aluminium cases came along, clearly containing some sort of technical kit. The guy next to me picked off #1 & #2 which were heavy but solid.

When he picked up #3 it was heavy alright but emitted a sort of jangling noise you get when there are a million peices of glass and metal in a jar.

He did NOT look happy

My wife and I both have Delsey hard shell cases. They have seen much traveling over the years and are still serviceable if a little scraped etc. Bought almost 35 years ago on the recommendation of an airline pilot friend.