Bag sans tag sets alarm bells ringing at airport

New Delhi: Unclaimed bags found on consecutive days at final round of screening of the Inline Baggage Screening System.
On August 15, a day when the entire country is on high alert, an unidentified bag without a tag was found at the end of Inline Baggage Screening System in the international terminal. The same incident happened the very next day, raising a serious question mark on the functioning of the latest system at Indira Gandhi International Airport.
The Customs is carrying out a detailed investigation of both lapses. The Inline Baggage System was introduced at the international terminal on June 15 this year to ensure fool-proof security.
Once the passenger has checked in his baggage, it goes through three screening levels. If there nothing suspicious is detected, the passenger sees it only at the destination. In case there is something objectionable, like explosives or narcotics, the baggage is detained at the third level and the owner summoned.
On August 15 afternoon, however, DIAL security officials working at the Inline Baggage System were foxed after an untagged (check-in tag missing) green soft top suitcase was found at the third security level of the screening system. Clueless, they took the baggage to the arrival hall and made an announcement for passengers to identify it.
“No one came forward, as the baggage was outbound and not incoming. Finally they came to us with the baggage at 3:00 pm,” said a Customs officials. The investigation carried out by Customs revealed there was only one Pakistan International Airline flight leaving for Karachi at 2:30 pm. Surprisingly, the baggage reconciliation chart of PIA showed all checked-in baggage had been boarded.
This is not an isolated case. A similar incident was repeated at night on August 16 when Jitender Kumar, DIAL supervisor for security and vigilance, noticed an unclaimed baggage at level 3 of the inline baggage system around 11:30 pm. The baggage was untagged and after X-ray screening and explosive trace detection it was found that there was nothing suspicious inside.
25/08/08 Sobhana K/Delhi Newsline

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Categories: Airports Aug 2008, Safety Aug 2008