MANCHESTER – A holidaymaker returning from a cruise says his wife’s hand luggage was stolen from an overhead locker on board a TUI flight to Manchester Airport.
Personal Effects That Were Stolen
Chris Broom said the bag contained valuable jewellery including pearls, two passports, prescription medicine, a driving licence, cash and an iPad, together with other important documentation, but he says Greater Manchester Police haven’t investigated properly, despite CCTV and passenger lists being available.
Manchester Airport said it was aware of the report and was supporting police and TUI. Mr Broom, 69, his wife and their son were on a flight from Barbados which landed at Terminal 2 at the airport in December last year.
It was a TUI flight charted from P&O after the family had been on a cruise.
Narration from the Victim
Mr Broom said they were sat at the rear of the plane on the righthand side and put the two bags – one pink and one blue – in overhead lockers a few rows in front.
He said: ‘There was a medical emergency a few rows in front of us on landing which necessitated paramedics to come on board. Passengers were asked to remain seated while the passenger was attended to, but a number of passengers stood up and opened the lockers anyway.
‘When we went to retrieve our bags, only the blue one remained. We dashed out of the plane thinking that the lady in front of us had taken it by mistake, but she did not have it.
‘After clearing immigration we went to baggage reclaim and thoroughly checked the area to see if we could spot the bag without success. My wife spoke to a lady flight attendant from our flight, who said they did a security check and no luggage was left on the aircraft.’
Mr Broom said the Filipino passports of his wife and son were taken. They have dual nationality so they were able to pass through immigration as they still had their British passports.
They are Told it was a Lost Property Issue
He said they spoke to the lost luggage department at the airport, who said they only deal with checked-in luggage, customer services and TUI. TUI, he said, told them it was a lost property issue.
‘We also spoke to two armed airport police officers and were advised to log the issue first with lost property and if the bag was not returned after 24 hours to file a crime report,’ Mr Broom said.
‘We had to leave the airport because we live in Devon and needed to catch a train to get home and file the online lost property report.
‘This we did, filing a crime report at approximately 4.30pm on January 1. But it took a mere 75 minutes to receive a reply containing a crime reference number and that the initial investigation was complete with no further investigation.
‘The thief must have known that they would get away with it, and indeed must now have full confidence in being able to repeat this in the future, causing more misery and upset to decent people who deserve better.
‘We are both shocked and disgusted that a thief can take a bag from a high security area and walk off, and all we get is grief and a crime number.
The Case is Officially Closed
In response, GMP said the crime report had been ‘closed’ due to insufficient evidence, but has been filed as ‘pending further investigation’ should any new evidence come to light.
