"No Show" Passenger

[Jetset320]

Had an interesting one yesterday.

Situation: Party of six. Six luggages. One pax managed to lose her passport after showing it at immigration, and was refused boarding at the gate. I was asked what I wanted to do.

My first reaction was to ask for the passenger's bag located and have it off-loaded as per normal security procedures.

Was then advised of the actual situation and was informed that it was a family of six, and it was the mother's passport that was missing and cound not be traced. The authorities would not let her fly unless the passport turned up. Of the six luggages, no specific bag belonged to the passenger. This was a tricky one!

What to do?

[261A]

Offload the whole group.

[Sven Sixtoo]

Just to clarify the options, from where, to where and what nationality was the pax?

[Jetset320]

Brussels to Malta and pax where Dutch. All EU countries but Passport or ID card still required.

[No_Speed_Restriction]

offload and let them all catch the next flight. not your problem my friend. we all like to accomodate but at the end of the day we have to get the show on the road eventually.

[Gary Lager]

Did the other five actually want to travel without Mum?

Offloading bags belonging to FTJs is a security precaution, to try and prevent someone putting a bomb in a bag and then staying in the airport lounge while it gets airborne and goes bang, right?

How does this precaution now figure in the days of suicide bombers etc.? It is still relevant in that we don't need to make it easy for terrorists, but will never be able to make our security airtight.

If family are determined to bring on a bomb and 'mother' is willing to sacrifice them to achieve that, then the fact that one bag 'belongs' to her probably makes no difference to the odds of that one being the one with the bomb in or not - why not ask if there is a particular bag she wants offloaded for her convenience, rather than security reasons?

If we can take rush bags without an accompanying pax, then if normal pax bags have been screened to the same standard (i.e. not in France, only 50% of bags x-rayed to my knowledge) then why not take them with their accompanying 'family'?

If they are intent on suicide bombing the flight and have got their IED past security then offloading one bag ain't gonna stop 'em anyway!

A quick phone call to the airline security manager should cover your arse in the meantime.

[striparella]

Off loaded all the luggage belonging to that family if not one specific case was under her name.

The c/i agent should have put a message in the system saying her luggage was pooled with others under another name to stop confusion like this.

Chances are if it's a family they may not want to travel without mama so all the luggage would have come off anyway.

[Carnage Matey!]

Have experienced an almost identical situation. Mother was a no-show, father insisted that none of the four bags in the party were hers. Solution: offload all the bags, drag father down to the bags on the ramp and watch as the security staff go through each bag with a fine tooth comb. Then reload the bags and away we go.

[261A]

I thought all bags hand and hold are X-rayed so so what if someone puts a bag that has been cleared onto an aircraft? it has been checked after all or should have been!?

[Carnage Matey!]

100% baggage reconciliation is a requirement in the UK, probably in most European countries too. If you don't make the flight the bag comes off, end of story. Our enemies never stop thinking of new ways to harm us, and neither do we (thanks to George W for the quote).

[FougaMagister]

As a dispatcher, I would have INFORMED the CPT but not gone to him/her asking "what do you want to do?" The DETR states that the "appointed person" (i.e. the dispatcher) is responsible fo ensuring that all luggage is reconciled with PAX. I would have offloaded the lot, full stop.

And the flight would have gone on time too!

Cheers

[GotTheTshirt]

Had an interesting one on same subject.

I was making a connection in Atlanta ( Guess which Airline ) and arrived early enough to make the connecting flight that left before the one I was booked on.
Went to the gate and asked if there was space but was told although there was space I couldn't travel on it because my baggage would be on the next flight without me and was a security problem.

A few weeks later travelling in the same carrier I arrived at destination sans baggage .
Reported it to the Airline rep and was told dont worry it is booked to come on the next flight and we will deliver to you home - which they did !

As Terry Wogan would say " IS IT ME !!!

[Ropey Pilot]

On arrival in the States immigration made sure that my connection was going to be extremely tight (and I had to change terminals). Put my hold baggage back into the system and was told it wouldn't make the flight so I would have to take the next one.

Got to the other terminal and watched my flight board and depart before killing 5 hours waiting for the next one.

On arrival I couldn't find my hold baggage on the carousel - that was because it had gone on the previous flight and was there waiting for me

[lexxity]

The c/i agent should have put a message in the system saying her luggage was pooled with others under another name to stop confusion like this.

But, if all the pax surnames were the same then the check in agent was in the right. If the pax were seperate names then the bags should reflect that in the first place.