2023-09-10 18:16:22
A Swiss plane linking Zurich to Bilbao arrived at its destination in Spain on Saturday without a single bag in the hold, to the great surprise of passengers, the media reported on Sunday, with the Swiss company blaming the lack of ground staff for this inconvenience.
Passengers on the Swiss flight to this city in northern Spain waited in vain for more than two hours on Saturday evening in front of the conveyor belt for their luggage to arrive, reports the daily Blick.
Swiss spokesman Kavin Ampalam confirmed that the plane, operated on behalf of the airline Edelweiss, took off with 111 passengers but no luggage on board.
“There was a shortage of ground staff,” he explained, adding that the crew had initially waited for the situation to be resolved.
Forced to leave for “operational reasons”
But following more than an hour “the situation was still unchanged and, for operational reasons, we decided to make the flight to Bilbao without luggage.”
The reason, he explained, was the need to collect other passengers in Bilbao and return the plane to Zurich before the airport closed for the night.
“We regret the inconvenience caused,” he said.
Passengers not warned
Blick cited passengers saying the pilot apologized for the delay in takeoff in Zurich, blaming “a lack of qualified personnel”, but without mentioning the decision to abandon their luggage.
The passengers claimed that no Swiss staff were present on the ground in Bilbao and that they then waited more than two hours to collect their luggage before staff from the Spanish airline Iberia informed them that the plane had landed without luggage on board.
“Our vacation is ruined,” passenger Carsten Redlich told Blick.
The Swiss spokesperson said he might not confirm that the passengers had not been informed of the decision to leave their luggage in Zurich. “We are still analyzing the situation to find out what exactly happened. This should not happen,” he said.
juma with agencies
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