Airline under fire after taking off without any of the passengers' checked baggage
One airline is currently investigating after a plane bound for Spain took off without any of the 111 passengers’ checked baggage.
On September 9, Swiss International Air Lines flight WK226 took off from Zurich, Switzerland and was headed for Bilbao, Spain, according to Euro News. Passengers waited at the airport conveyor belt for over two hours only to discover that none of their checked bags were loaded onto their plane.
Swiss German-language newspaper Blick stated that they received numerous reports from passengers who were affected by the incident. They also stated that passengers said that the plane took off an hour and a half late, and they claimed that the pilot said it was due to “a shortage of skilled workers.”
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There was no mention of the fact that their luggage never made it on board.
“I just find it arrogant to knowingly ruin people’s holidays like that,” stated one passenger. “Because it has to be done knowingly.”
Passengers’ bags were flown to Bilbao on Monday evening.
According to the airline’s spokesperson Kavin Ampalam, it was due to operational reasons. Ampalam explained that due to Zurich Airport’s night flight ban at 11 pm, the decision was made to fly to Spain without the luggage so that the plane could return to Zurich on time.
“Due to a lack of ground staff with our responsible baggage handler, the baggage could not be loaded,” Ampalam told Insider.
“We deeply understand the frustration and anger of the passengers, especially because many of them were travelling on vacation.”
The airline is “currently reviewing our processes to prevent such cases from happening again,” with the spokesperson stating that “this shouldn’t happen.”
Daily Hive has reached out to Swiss International Airlines.
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