Page 7 - ARUBA TODAY

A7
U.S. NEWS Friday 19 January 2018

Luggage limbo: Bags still missing after JFK airport woes

By JENNIFER PELTZ The bag didn’t get to Ve-
FRANK ELTMAN gas — where Kaul missed
Associated Press part of the conference
NEW YORK (AP) — New- buying new clothes — un-
lywed Ziad Dallal and his til after he left for Mumbai
wife arrived home in New Jan. 10, he said. The suit-
York, with wedding keep- case was apparently load-
sakes in their bags, to find ed the next day on a Paris-
John F. Kennedy Interna- bound plane, supposedly
tional Airport paralyzed to continue to Mumbai, but
by winter weather woes that’s where the trail goes
that canceled flights, froze cold, he said.
equipment and separated “They should have tracked
thousands of passengers it. I don’t know what’s hap-
from their luggage. pening,” said Kaul, who
Eleven days later, the went the Mumbai airport
couple on Thursday was Thursday to inquire again
still waiting for one of their about what became of
bags, or even a clear an- his bag. “Nobody has any
swer on where it was. Last idea.”
they heard, a local lug- Atlanta-based Delta said
gage delivery company its JFK baggage operation
had it. Or it might be in a In this Jan. 8, 2018 photo, unclaimed baggage sits at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport after a had cleared the backlog
Delta Air Lines warehouse water pipe burst following several days of weather-related delays in the wake of a powerful winter and sent bags out to be
in Atlanta. storm. Over a week after winter weather woes snowballed into a long weekend of dysfunction delivered by Jan. 10, add-
“Yes, there was a very bad at the airport, some passengers are still waiting for their baggage. The still-missing luggage is a ing that it needs accurate
weather situation, but that fraction of the thousands of unclaimed bags that accumulated during the chaos. contact and delivery infor-
(AP Photo/Richard Drew)
does not excuse anyone,” mation to return luggage.
said Dallal, a comparative backed-up arrival gates, a good record on luggage: line executive. It’s unclear how many bags
literature doctoral student burst water pipe that flood- Thanks to improvements in “When an event like this remain unaccounted-for.
at New York University. ed one terminal and days bag-tracking technology happens, there’s suddenly An airport official said
“This is totally unaccept- of delays. and processes, the rate no physical manpower Wednesday the backlog
able to me and to my wife The luggage in limbo is a of mishandled baggage to address it,” Mann said. had dwindled to about
and to every passenger, I fraction of the thousands of has fallen 70 percent since “They are forced back into 100 bags from Air China
believe.” unclaimed bags that accu- 2007, hitting a record low manual procedures and flights; the official wasn’t
The Brooklyn couple, who mulated during the chaos. in 2016, according to air- not equipped to handle it.” authorized to discuss the
flew back from London af- But it illuminates the mag- line technology firm SITA. No kidding, says Inderjit issue publicly and spoke
ter marrying in Lebanon, nitude of the breakdown But airlines aren’t prepared Singh Kaul. He still was wait- on condition of anonym-
was awakened at 1 a.m. and airlines’ limitations in for an unexpected back- ing Thursday in Mumbai, In- ity. A message left with the
Friday when a delivery- handling baggage back- log that happens fast, said dia, for word of the bag he Beijing-based airline’s JFK
man suddenly showed up ups. Robert Mann, an industry last saw at JFK after a Jan. office was not immediately
with one of their bags, Dal- The industry generally has a consultant and former air- 6 flight from London. returned. q
lal said. The two canceled
being told the second bag San Francisco police recover Olympic skater’s costumes
dinner plans Saturday after
was coming, but it didn’t.
It’s among a hundred or SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — car break-in last week while each worth over $1,000. 2014 winter Olympics in So-
more bags still missing af- San Francisco police have Castelli and her parents vis- She and her parents were chi, Russia, and is the 2017
ter a long weekend of dys- recovered two pricey cos- ited San Francisco. having lunch in San Fran- U.S. national silver medalist.
function at JFK, where a tumes and a pair of ice The San Francisco Chroni- cisco’s Japantown on Jan. San Francisco is plagued
Jan. 4 snowstorm and sub- skates belonging to U.S. cle reports police told Cas- 8 when a burglar broke into by auto burglaries, with a
sequent cold snap spiraled Olympic figure skater Ma- telli Wednesday they found their rental car and stole record of more than 30,000
into frozen equipment, rissa Castelli. her skates and custom skat- luggage. reported last year, a 24 per-
planes waiting hours for The items were stolen in a ing competition dresses, Castelli competed in the cent increase over 2016.q