Many travelers still waiting for their bags after JFK Airport fiasco
CHELSEA, Manhattan (WABC) -- Several hundred pieces of luggage remain unmatched to their owners after the meltdown earlier this month at JFK Airport.
Back home in her Chelsea apartment after landing at JFK 11 days ago, Jessica Holden still waits for her luggage. "The frustrating thing is that no one can say to me categorically your bag is here and it will be delivered at this point," she said.
It's somewhere in a sea of luggage that piled up at JFK following the major snowstorm January 4th that delayed flights once it was over. "Perhaps my bag is going to be delivered. Perhaps it isn't," she says. "I don't know."
She says calls to the airline go unanswered. The only delivery service, she claims, does not answer. But Monday night officials of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey confirmed they still had 231 bags that haven't been returned to their owners.
"There is no guarentee this can't happen again," says Senator Charles Schumer of New York.
The Senator reveals when flights resumed and foreign carriers were allowed to land at JFK many, he claims, never contacted the two international terminals, one and four, to get gate assignments.
"And that's why so many people sat on the runways. That's why so many planes were diverted to the wrong gates and why luggage never got to where it should," he says.
Jessica's flight was diverted from Terminal Four to Terminal Two. "Being stuck on a plane for two hours. Having to wait at JFK for six hours only then at 11 p.m. to be told that we weren't getting out luggage was unwelcome," Jessica says.
Senator Schumer is now calling on the Department of Transportation, the Port Authority and its terminal operators to address the problem. "And make sure that the foreign airlines are required to communicate with the terminals before they land and that could avoid a lot of the chaos," he says.
Jessica has learned some people on her flight have received their bags. "We'll see, we'll see," she says.
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