‘Vibrating’ bag scares airport staff

Mumbai: ‘Is it a bomb? Is it a snake?’ wondered scared loaders when a checked-in suitcase started vibrating in the baggage make-up room at Sahar terminal 2C of Mumbai airport on Thursday evening. It turned out to be a vacuum cleaner!
Around 9.30 pm on Thursday, M Ruhani, who was travelling by Air Arabia’s G9 402 Mumbai-Sharjah flight, had checked in his suitcase in which a vacuum cleaner was packed in. Ruhani apparently had not removed the battery from the vacuum cleaner and the machine got switched on when a loader dropped it.
The suitcase immediately got into “vibration” mode and the panic-stricken loaders rushed out of the room, and informed security officials. The loaders’ first thought was that it was an explosive.
Soon, Air India security officials, who do ground-handling for Air Arabia, arrived. “They traced the baggage owner from the suitcase tag and called him to open the bag.
When he opened it we were surprised to see a vacuum cleaner vibrating,” said the source. The entire drama lasted 30 to 40 minutes. “Normally, passengers carry electronic goods but remove the batteries inside. In this case, the passenger probably forgot to do so,” he said.
13/09/08 Navita Singh/Daily News & Analysis

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Categories: Airports Sep 2008