This is what happens when you check luggage. Watch as passengers look on in amazement as a spinner bag rolls on its own, away from aircraft and down the alleyway between American Airlines and Delta operations.
No one does anything to stop it, although in fairness it’s not really advisable to simply go running out on the tarmac — we can’t see in the video whether a plane might be taxiing in or getting pushed back.
Last year a bag at Heathrow was “blown by an engine draft for nearly 600 feet before it was stopped by panicking ground crew.”
The bag’s owner was lucky it wasn’t sucked into an aircraft engine I suppose.
Apparently R2D2 is free to move about the tarmac.
Funniest thing is the infectious laugh of the two people filming the runaway bag!
That transit corridor is pretty flat – the video seems to be taken from Concourse T and the bag appears to be rolling between Concourse T and A at ATL. Maybe a jet blast from a plane pushed back from it’s gate and revving up for taxi-ing?
“We’ve got a runner!”
“it’s not really advisable to simply go running out on the tarmac”
In general, at a major airport, run-of-the-mill airline employees have strictly defined areas where they are allowed to be. If one doesn’t follow the rules, the airport authority can actually take away your ramp access. Kinda makes it hard to do your job if that happens.
The proper thing to do is actually have airport ops run after the bag. They have the radios and what not to coordinate their movement with ramp control.
One more reason not to buy a spinner bag.
This is the latest generation of smart bag. It is simply trying to get to its connecting flight.