Four days and still waiting for their checked-in luggage

Four days after reaching Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) here by a connecting British Airways flight, scores of passengers are yet to get back their luggage checked in at the Miami airport in the United States.

Here’s the airline’s explanation: A technical glitch at London’s Heathrow Airport T5 terminal has triggered a pile-up. Only 50 luggage pieces are being sent to KIA daily.

Anxiously awaiting his luggage, Isro Layout resident Venkatasubba Rao was among the affected passengers.

“After a thorough checking where even my shoes had to be removed, my wife and I had boarded the flight at 9.20 pm US time. We reached London’s Heathrow Airport at 10.30 am local time the next day. There were almost four hours before the connecting flight to Bangalore took off at 2.29 pm. We thought they had enough time to shift the entire luggage to the British Airways aircraft,” he told Deccan Herald.

On the airline’s advice, Rao had checked in even part of his cabin luggage at London. But when he reached the KIA at 5.25 am on Friday, there was no sign of the couple’s four big suitcases or the hand luggage.

Dozens of other passengers who were with them from Miami also had the same issue.

KIA officials later confirmed that the luggage of only 20 passengers had arrived that day.

They approached the British Airways desk, only to be told to fill out a form and await the luggage.

Till Tuesday, none of the passengers had secured their valuables.

“People like us who live in Bangalore can somehow manage. But what about the scores of tourists and NRIs who are coming in droves during this season. How could they wait this long,” another passenger wondered aloud.