www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/ny-nyjfk0731,0,31641 -
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Published on: 7/30/2008
Last Visited: 7/31/2008
At 4 a.m., the software that controls American Airlines' automated baggage system experienced a glitch, resulting in delays that affected about 35 flights, said Ned Raynolds, American Airlines' corporate communication manager.
No flights were canceled, and flight departures were delayed from 60 to 90 minutes, an airline spokesman said.
"These are the bags that have not yet found a home," Raynolds said.
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By noon, the software system, which reads the bar codes on the luggage tags to determine the bags' proper destinations, was running, but only at about 60 percent, Raynolds said.
"The problem had to do with the software, which is what tells the conveyor belts where to take the luggage," Raynolds said."As a result, many of the passengers on our morning flights took off without their luggage."
Flight delays continued into Wednesday night.American Airlines averages about 95 daily flights out of Kennedy Airport, he said.
While the system was being repaired, the airline used manual labor, including about a dozen people from its sales department, to handle about 20 percent of the total baggage volume, Raynolds said.
"It's like we've gone back in time 60 or 70 years," he said.
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Raynolds said the airline is using its flights out of LaGuardia Airport to transport some of the excess baggage to its owners.