Flight scare

Airline porters mishandled or lost an average of 7.6 pieces of baggage per 1,000 passengers in 2022, based on statistics compiled by Swiss aviation systems developer SITA.

The mishandling was attributed to airline staff’s failure to load the baggage at the departure airport or errors in transferring them at connecting airports.

There are, however, error-proof baggage handlers, particularly in Japan’s Kansai International Airport, where no baggage has been lost since it opened 30 years ago, Nikkei Asia reports. A whopping 10 million bags were handled at KIA in 2023.

Japanese airport staff also efficiently deal with missing items to find them. However, the zeal of the search conducted recently at New Chitose Airport in Hokkaido went to the extent of disrupting travel.

Upon receiving the report of a missing item from an airport store, the airport’s operator ordered the delay or suspension of flights as a safety precaution.

A total of 201 flights — 129 departures and 72 arrivals — were delayed, with 36 canceled, Hokkaido Airports Co. Ltd. reported, according to NBC News.

To find the missing item, airport staff also closed security checkpoints and reinspected already screened passengers. Flights resumed in the evening of 17 August.

The search ended the next day when the store clerk reported finding the missing item — a pair of scissors. Airport authorities, after verifying that it was the missing scissors, announced it had been found.

The scissors were not actually missing but were found inside a locker at the airport store. The flight delays and stringent reinspections were ordered because scissors could be used to hijack a plane and terrorize the crew and passengers. And the Japanese are known to be security conscious and thorough in everything they do.