Lost luggage woes
- 3 Jan 07, 03:32 PM
It all started with an email to yourpics@bbc.co.uk at 15:19 on Tuesday.
βDear Sirs,
As a British Airways passenger, I arrived in Terminal One at Heathrow Airport yesterday afternoon, and was appalled by the sight which met me in the baggage reclaim area. There were literally hundreds of items of βlostβ luggage piled up all around the reclaim area. I have attached some photos, but also have some comments.β
Colin Barber then went on to list his concerns and ended saying: βEvery item of luggage represents a spoilt Christmas/New Year for someone.β
Clearly, there was a story here, and like many other tip-offs from our audience, we wrote it up as .
It certainly did strike a chord. Within minutes, we had tens of emails of lost luggage woes. Declan Curry, the business presenter on Breakfast mentioned the story and showed some of Mr Barberβs pictures.
More pictures began arriving of luggage piled up. People began emailing us to say they recognised their bags!
As has become common practice now with our UGC (user generated content) area, all this information was passed around news programmes. Each one of the emails could have made a story in their own right.
British Airways then came out with a statement and apologised to customers for the problems, but it became clear this wasnβt something that was going to go away quickly.
News 24 and the One OβClock News got on the case, and Mr Barber appeared on television and on Five Live. Correspondents were dispatched to Heathrow.
The way this story has snowballed is a lesson to us all; from a single email a general widespread problem was revealed and those who were ultimately responsible had to explain to the public what they were going to do about it.
If youβve lost luggage, you can send us your stories via .
Vicky Taylor is editor of Interactivity
