Malaysia Airlines says ground staff punished over ‘vandalism’

National carrier takes action after complaint from passenger on bags not being tagged at check-in and later found vandalised.

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia Airlines said it is taking “stern” action against its ground staff over “vandalism” and other issues arising from a failure to tag the bags of a family on a recent flight, Malay Mail Online reported.

This follows a complaint filed with the national carrier on the actions of the ground staff at KLIA, which started when the passenger, Rose Kuruvilla, asked them to retrieve her family’s bags which had been checked in without tags.

Aside from filing an official complaint with the airline, she took to Facebook to detail what had transpired on Wednesday.

“Today, my husband, myself and my 11-month old baby were scheduled to fly business class from KL to Sydney on Malaysia Airlines.

“At the KLIA Business Class check-in counter, one staff checked us in, while the baggage handler loaded our bags onto the conveyor belt and sent it off, without the baggage tags.

“The staff ran onto the conveyor belt to chase after our untagged bags. But too late, it had already gone down the chute.

“The staffs and supervisors tried their best to call everyone from the baggage team to locate the bag, but to no avail,” Kuruvilla wrote in her FB page.

She added that the Malaysia Airlines staff told them that they should just board the flight as the baggage will end up on their flight and that there was nothing to worry about.

“I’m shocked of the ‘supervisor’-level decision asking us to get on the flight assuring us the bag will somehow arrive safely in Sydney. The bags were untagged and had no name on them.

“Their responses were plain unprofessional, rude and clear that they wanted us to leave so that it would be someone else’s problem to sort out. There was no apology, no solution,” she said, adding that they refused to board the flight without their bags being tagged.

According to her, the airline eventually found the family’s baggage after an hour, causing them to miss the flight, and after returning it, put the family on the next available flight 12 hours later.

Bag vandalised

What was discovered at Sydney airport after picking up the baggage was what prompted Kuruvilla to file an official complaint.

“I have always had the label ‘THIS IS NOT YOUR BAG’ pasted onto my bag. I do this, so as to avoid others accidently taking my bag.

“On top of making a gross mistake and not apologising for it, they vandalise my bag with insulting remarks,” she said, referring to the line “SO? ANGKAT SENDIRI LAH!!”, written just below her words on the label.

The words, which translates to “SO? JUST CARRY IT YOURSELF!!” finally convinced Kuruvilla to also share what she had experience.

“Mistakes happen and to err is human. But after having property vandalised, I feel it is only right to share this experience with all my friends,” she said on FB.

Malaysia Airlines told the news portal that an internal investigation had been carried out and that “stern” action had been taken against the staff responsible.

“We regret the unfortunate experience that Ms Kuruvilla and her family faced with our ground services.

“Malaysia Airlines takes this incident very seriously and we apologise to Ms Kuruvilla for the unacceptable behaviour of our staff. We always endeavour to provide the best service to our guests,” the airline was quoted as saying.  FMT