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Brawl breaks out at Manchester airport over lost luggage

Two men began fighting with each other as frustrations grew by the baggage carousel

Eleanor Sly
Tuesday 20 September 2022 14:37 BST
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The brawl broke at by the luggage carousel
The brawl broke at by the luggage carousel (Brawl at Manchester Airport)

A brawl broke out at Manchester airport over some lost luggage on Sunday night, following a delayed KLM flight from Amsterdam.

A video clip, filmed at the aviation hub, shows two men throwing punches at one another near the baggage carousel as passengers waiting for their bags looked on in shock.

The plane was meant to land in Manchester at 10.20pm but was delayed, meaning that it didn’t reach the UK until 11.45pm.

Discontented passengers were further upset when they were told that their luggage hadn’t made it with them to the UK and was in fact still in the Netherlands.

This was due to a ground staff strike at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport.

Footage obtained by the Daily Mail shows the two men fighting with each other while people yelled “stop it”, and “enough” as they tried to break up the fracas.

The passenger who filmed the incident – and who asked to remain anonymous – described the situation as a “nightmare” and said everyone was exhausted and increasingly angry.

“It isn’t nice to see people fighting and we were just waiting for our suitcases,” they told the Mail.

“All hell broke loose. There were people fighting and so people started running. It was crazy.

“We all had to deal with it as there was zero security or staff around to help.”

The incident apparently all started when passengers were handed a piece of paper telling them that “unforeseen operational challenges” meant their luggage could not be offloaded in a “timely manner.”

There was allegedly no clear indication as to when they would receive the luggage to their chosen address.

The passenger who filmed the video said that people started shouting at staff before turning on each other.

It follows a summer of flight delays, pile-ups and lost luggage at UK airports due to a lack of staff.

London’s Heathrow Airport experienced a technical failure which saw luggage pile up and photographs of a “baggage mountain” go viral.

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