Lufthansa leaves passenger’s bag on tarmac at airport – despite him telling cabin crew

‘I can SEE the bag’

Helen Coffey
Thursday 03 October 2019 10:25 BST
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Man could see his bag on the tarmac
Man could see his bag on the tarmac (Twitter/@KarnRateria)

A Lufthansa passenger was outraged when the airline left his bag behind on the tarmac despite him alerting cabin crew.

Karn Rateria was flying from Munich airport and was already on the plane when he spotted his bag through the window.

However, when he informed a flight attendant his luggage was not onboard, they allegedly dismissed his claims.

“Uhm Lufthansa you’ve left my bag on the tarmac!” he tweeted.

“I told the crew and they just said loading is complete. I can SEE the bag. And we’re taking off without it. What even is this?”

He posted a picture of a wheeled suitcase, clearly visible on the tarmac outside.

Initially Lufthansa responded on Twitter: “Very sorry for that. There was an outage of the baggage system at the airport in Frankfurt. My colleagues are doing their best to locate the bags and send them as quick as possible.”

However, as Rateria pointed out, the incident took place at Munich airport.

He said it was “infuriating” to “physically see my bag being left behind”.

Rateria added: “I pointed out the bag out to the crew, one of them spoke to the captain as well, but they just said loading is complete. Even though you could SEE the bag right there!”

He has since been reunited with his luggage, tweeting a picture of it and thanking those who sent messages of support.

“To the people who laughed, I shall join you once I’m unpacked,” he added.

“Hope none of you have to watch your bag being left behind and not be able to do anything about it.”

The Lufthansa manager at Munich airport said in a statement: “This was a rare technical problem at the baggage drop, which appeared only for this single registered baggage. However, our ground staff identified this bag quickly and sent this to the passenger.

“We apologise for the inconvenience.”

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