The ‘priceless' sarod of maestro Amjad Ali Khan happens to be one of the 26 million checked items that go missing every year at international airports. New technological inventions like hand-held scanners and luggage tags embedded with radio chips may reduce the menace
Ustad Amjad Ali Khan’s sarod, which he has been playing for the last 45 years, has gone missing while he was returning to Delhi from london by the British Airways flight. The Padma Vibhushan sarod maestro told us that he had gone to london along with his wife Subhalaxmi for a performance at Dartington College to celebrate the life of Rabindranth Tagore on June 21 and returned on the night of June 28. But when he arrived at the Delhi airport on June 28, he could not find his “priceless” sarod. “We waited there for over five hours while the airline people tried to trace the instrument. But they were not able to trace it, and they said most likely it would come by the next flight. But now its more than 48 hours and still I am waiting for some news. How can such a big airline be so irresponsible,” he added. To his anguish, the British Airways has said, “There have been intermittent problems with Heathrow Airport’s baggage system at Terminal 5. We are working round-the-clock to make sure we reunite all of our customers with their baggage as quickly as possible.”
The airline’s response only reveal the loopholes in the functioning of the international airports where luggages are becoming more and more vulnerable. Khan is not the only one who has lost his ‘priceless possession’ while travelling overseas. A lot of well-known faces, both national and international, have rued time and again about the negligence of authorities and how their luggage is not given due attention despite being tagged as important material.
Musical genius AR Rahman lost his valuable laptop at the london Airport. The laptop had rare musical notes and technical information about the musician’s forthcoming projects. He also lost his important costume which was designed for the premiere of lord of the Rings. Incidents of stars losing their baggage and buying a fresh wardrobe while holidaying abroad are common. And if that’s the case with celebrities, we can imagine the sufferings of common man flying with the international airlines.
Some 26 million pieces of checked luggage went astray on international flights in 2011. It’s as though an airport the size of Philadelphia International had misplaced one bag for every passenger during an entire year. And in 2010, an astonishing one million suitcases were never recovered at all, vanishing into a sort of baggage black hole because they were either stolen or lost their identifying tags somewhere along the way. In 2012, nearly 1.8 million pieces of luggage were lost, stolen or damaged by major US airlines.
But the question is why are luggages lostIJ Sometimes, the routing label gets damaged or people forget to pick up their luggage upon landing. The error can also come from the attendant’s side, who types in the wrong destination code. When you hand over your luggage, the bag-check attendant accidentally inputs the wrong destination code. There are chances your bag is loaded onto the wrong plane by the airline staff. If your baggage is delayed, the airline has 21 days to try and find it and return it to you. If they don’t do this or it isn’t found, it will be considered to be lost. There are no set rules about how the airline will help you during the 21-day delay period. However, they should cover any emergency expenses that you have to pay because you don’t have your luggage.
With cases of theft and lost becoming a norm, the world class airports are compelled to devise new technologies to tackle the menace. Few airports have reportedly started using hand-held scanners, luggage tags embedded with radio chips. It may promise a future of shorter lines and, of course, fewer lost bags.