Exercise R Us

Question:

I was in the other room when the news was on last night and barely heard anything of a report about an EVA Air flight running into some severe turbulence yesterday.  What I had heard was the plane dropped 800 ft in 2 seconds(!!?!). There were injuries (17 I think).  Does anyone else have full info on what happened?  Thanks.. Brad  

Response:

Apart from the fact that Continental Airlines has an extremely poor reputation for service and comfort, it has become readily apparent to me that they do not take adequate precautions against the theft of checked passenger luggage.  On my flight from Los Angeles/LAX via Newark to London/LGW at least a half dozen passengers arrived to be stuck in baggage claim without their luggage.  I have little doubt these bags were not only lost in the system but they were stolen. Continental Airlines’ lax security and complete lack of any tracking system for passenger bags allowed my bag to be stolen without so much as a clue as to even where in their system my bag was taken from their custody.  Who has authority to regulate, investigate, prosecute, and generally encourage much better security for passenger bags against theft in transit? My own bag has not appeared in over a month of ’searching’ during which there was apparently no effort expended by Continental Airlines to actually find my bag.  I want and need my bag.  Continental has done nothing to find it for me. What regulatory authority can push Continental into investigating this theft? August 7, 1995 System Tracing Center Continental Airlines 18201C Viscount Road Houston, TX 77032-9933 Re:  Theft of bag in transit from Los Angeles/LAX to London/LGW Gentleman: When I was told on arrival at London/LGW on July 7, 1995 7:05 AM that one of my bags could not be found, I immediately requested your baggage tracing group file a police report regarding the theft of my bag and perform a thorough investigation into its whereabouts including a search of the point of origin of my flight from Los Angeles/LAX, through the transfer point at Newark Airport, to my final destination at London/LGW, and any additional landing sites of the planes on which I flew to Newark and London. I want my bag returned to me immediately!  I do not want excuses! I do not want to be forced to sign some statement indemnifying or excusing your airline from exercising reasonable care and control over your own personnel and your passengers in the handling of my bags.  I would note that although I specifically requested a police report be filed and an investigation be conducted immediately, it would appear your airline never even attempted to investigate the sites through which my bag would likely have traveled where I had specifically requested an investigation take place.  It would also appear that your airline never filed a local police or FBI report for the theft of my bag in transit in interstate commerce.  However, your airline’s most severe lapse in security in connection with the disappearance of my bag must be the fact that no one on your staff ever bothered to compare baggage tags against baggage stubs at London/LGW.   Continental Airlines August 7, 1995 Page 2 of 3 I never wanted to fly on your airline.  I knew your airline had a reputation for extremely poor service.  However, I never dreamed you could allow one of two bags to completely disappear without a trace in transit from Los Angeles through Newark to London.  Why does it appear that you maintain no records of baggage loaded onto aircraft in Los Angeles?  Why can’t you verify whether or not my bag arrived in Newark?  Why can’t you verify whether my bag was loaded onto my aircraft bound for London?  Why couldn’t your people even identify the next destination for my aircraft after it landed in London?  Your "claim" forms demand that passengers maintain and produce records of purchases made months or even years prior to their flight.  However, you appear to be completely unable to trace individual bags with assigned serial numbers from one place to another in your system immediately after a flight I have seen on United States national television documentaries how baggage handlers are routinely allowed to pilfer individual items and even entire bags from airline baggage handling facilities.  Perhaps you should be doing more about creating and maintaining at least a minimally adequate system for securing and tracing passenger bags which are entrusted to your custody. In any case, please find my bag.  It contains documents which are essential to my research, a costly computer system, and a number of other items which have sentimental value to me. As far as your request for receipts or proof of ownership of the items which are listed on your form, please keep in mind this trip was my move from the United States to London for an academic appointment which will last for at least two years.  I packed all I could in my two checked bags and my one carry on camera bag to take with me to London.  I did not (and could not) pack my receipts for everything purchased over the past several years.  Indeed, I do not personally have receipts for the new grey camelhair blazer purchased at Academy Award in downtown Los Angeles and two dress shirts purchased at Ross in Fairfax as gifts for me by my fiance just prior to my flight.  The fact remains, however, that due to the inexcusable negligence of your airline in failing to adequately secure my bag in transit from Los Angeles to London, Continental Airlines August 7, 1995 Page 2 of 3 I have suffered the loss of essentially half of the personal effects that I intended to have available to me during my stay in London.  Due to the high cost of living in London, none of these items could be replaced for anything approaching their original purchase price.  Moreover, my research materials and other personal effects which have sentimental value are irreplacable at any cost. Please advise your general counsel that I want my bag returned to me immediately.  Otherwise, I will personally file complaints against your airline with the FBI, FAA, DOT, LAPD, Scotland Yard, and any other civilian authorities regulating your activities.   If you continue to be unable to locate my bag and cannot even provide an accounting of the locations through which it actually passed which would allow us to at least identify where it was taken from your custody, then I am likely to file civil suit against your airline for negligence in failing in the first place to take reasonable precautions against the theft of my bag — and — in the second place for failing to conduct a timely and adequate investigation into the disappearance of my bag.  Unfortnately, at this late date, I rather suspect your belated efforts in this regard may   be completely futile. Sincerely, Dr. Alexander J. Annala Laboratory for Molecular Pharmacology Department of Pharmacology University College Gower Street London WC1E 6BT United Kingdom

Response: