Thousands of passengers on All Nippon Airways’ (ANA’s) domestic flights in Japan arrived at their destinations sans luggage on Friday (Aug 12), after a conveyor belt in Tokyo’s Haneda Airport malfunctioned.
RocketNews24 reported that, instead of their luggage, passengers arriving in Oita were met upon arrival with a sign informing them that their luggage did not make the flight.
ANA said in the handwritten apology that the company will try to send the passengers’ luggage to them within the day, but hoped that passengers can be “understanding” if the company failed to do that, as “there is a lot of congestion at Haneda Airport”.
羽田空港、手荷物コンベア故障の為、大分行きは手荷物乗せずに飛び立った模様。着替えとかどーすんだよ！#羽田空港#手荷物トラブル発生#大分空港 pic.twitter.com/yU3uAd2Zgd
— 華 (@n_hana) 12 August 2016
What miffed some passengers even more was that ANA only informed passengers about the problem with their luggage after they’ve landed and left the aircraft, even though the crew knew about the problem.
“At the time we were supposed to take off, they announced there would be a short delay because ‘they were loading the bags’…Now I have to write my address on a piece of paper, so they’ll send (my luggage) to me,” tweeted a passenger who arrived in Hokkaido.
Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported that one of ANA’s two conveyor belts stopped at about 6.50am as sensors failed. The belt was restarted about 40 minutes later.
The stoppage led to 12 flights leaving Haneda airport with just part of the check-in luggage, and 16 flights with none at all. Some 2,080 pieces of luggage were left behind, Kyodo said. The 28 flights carried about 7,800 passengers.
ANA explained that it decided to let flights depart without check-in luggage to shorten delays and reduce confusion at the airport, and to minimise the impact on other flights.
The airline said a total of 42 flights were delayed by more than 30 minutes, affecting 12,700 passengers.
RocketNews24 said that about 5,500 passengers were left without their luggage.
It reported that some passengers were also miffed that only “angry” passengers received a 5,000 yen (S$67) “apology” from the airline.
The report said that Buzzfeed Japan had interviewed a passenger in Okayama who did not have a forwarding address for his luggage. He said ANA staff gave him an envelope with the money inside when he talked to the staff.
The passenger in Hokkaido tweeted that she overheard a couple complaining about receiving “just 5,000 yen” after she had written down her address for the airline and left. “Apparently if you get all angry and get up in the staff’s face, they’ll slip you an envelope with 5,000 yen inside…It’s kind of sneaky of them not to tell everyone,” she wrote.
荷札に住所を書いて渡して、外に出ようとしたときに、カップルがお詫びが5000円って安いよねって、言ってるのが聞こえて、え？お金くれるの❓
係りの人にどーしてくれるんだと揉めると5000円が入った封筒くれるらしいわ（笑）
全員に渡さないところがいやらしいね#ANA #全日空— たかみな推しのなんちゃって薬剤師 (@fumifumi_chan) 12 August 2016
The incident happened during the Obon holiday season in Japan, one of the country’s three major holiday seasons, marked by increased travel activities.
sinsh@sph.com.sg
Shutterstock, AFP, Reuters, Bloomberg, TNP, The Straits Times
