At The Baggage Loading Area
From the previous post, you know I was at Cebu airport. But do you know what and where this is?
Such an area is an important component of an airport's departure operations.
In the 'olden times', or at less-sophisticated airports, this kind of place was/is called "Baggage Sorting Area". At times there were/are airports that even still call it their "Baggage Sorting and Loading Area"!
Why is that so? Because, there are airports that can only afford so much length of conveyor belts. So, their 'style' is: let all luggage ride down that conveyor, some staff wait at the end of the conveyor, grab everything off it, then another set of staff get the pieces of luggage and sort them according to flight.
You may laugh at how crude the above scenario is. But mind you, that is not yet the most primitive of them all! There are airports worlwide (many in the Philippines) where there are even no such belts yet! Meaning, hinahatak lang si bag from the check-in counters, isasakay sa cart, para ma-ihatid sa plane!
Sige tumawa ka! Actually, in our dear pinagpalang inangbayan, there are still only a handful of airports with 'departure baggage conveyor belts'. Sus, tumingin ka lang sa likod ng check-in agent. Meron ba?
This is where checked-in bags arrive at, after a joyride on conveyor belts from the check-in counters.
Those guys wait for the bags to pass by their knees and grab them, just like we do at the arrival area's baggage carousel. What's their basis on which bag to grab? Flight details printed on the baggage tag.
It is mano-mano yes, but they do have some semblance of technology in use. Like that monitor where the red arrow points to, it is a list of flights with information, to guide those loaders on what to expect.
Of course they may (should) only grab bags destined for their assigned flights. Pwedeng magkamali? Pwedeng-pwede ah! That is why sometimes your baggage don't arrive with you - dahil nagkamali sila!
That thing where a green arrow points to, is called a container. Luggage are placed in there, and those "containers" themselves are loaded unto the belly of bigger airplanes. They're arranged like toy blocks in the belly of the plane! Now, imagine if you are being offloaded, they'll search in all those containers!
For smaller planes, containers are not used. Bags are instead loaded unto pushcarts (surrounding the manong), which are towed to the side of a plane, then bags will be transferred to the belly of the plane one-by-one and manually! At times, they use a thing called conveyor to speed up that loading process.
Imagine too when a passenger on your flight (let us say Cebu to Siargao), did not show up at the gate, but he had checked-in a bag or many bags. Flight can't leave until his bags are located and offloaded!
Alam nyo na kung bakit, right? Eh malay mo yung baggage pala eh... ayayay simba ko!
Tsismis:
That's one area of airport operations, where "miracles" can happen to your luggage! Don't bet on CCTV - bakit me camera ba sa loob ng container o sa belly ng airplane? Wala ha! But even at just the loading areas alone (whether arrivals or departures), those containers and other equipment are too high or big it's always easy for a kawatan to avoid the cameras. Kaya isara ang dapat isara, itago ang dapat itago!
Hey, I'm not saying me nangyari na sa luggage ko at Cebu. I just used the above photos as example of a baggage loading area location. So far I feel Cebu is one of the safest in terms of securing my things.
Okay now... lesson learned? It better be!
Aruu, I still ahve a lot of stories about/in/around airports. Coming soon, one-by-one and sporadically!
Pramis!
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