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A Mechanical Glitch Led to American Airlines Passengers Landing Without Their Luggage

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About 2,500 American Airlines passengers landed without their luggage at destinations worldwide on Friday, Feb. 20. 

The airline blames the baggage-handling system’s conveyor belts, which had several mechanical issues.

Hannah Sampson, a business reporter for the Miami Herald, wrote on the topic. She says the baggage-handling system was initially used by American Airlines in 2012 and then fully handed over to the airline in 2014. 

“It’s not a machine that has a lot of years of history for this to have happened, at least in this specific place, before,” says Sampson. 

More than 5,000 bags were left behind in Miami International Airport, affecting flights that took off between 6:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. 

About 50 bags were left to get to the passengers by late afternoon on Monday, Feb. 23. 

The incident led to complaints from passengers on social media, partly because hours went by before they knew what was going on. 

“A lot of them were landing in cold places and they didn’t have the clothes that they needed to cope with that,” says Sampson.

American Airlines is working on contingency planning and improving communication in case this happens again.

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