Unclaimed bag forces Scoot flight for Singapore to return to Bangkok

SINGAPORE - A Scoot flight from Bangkok to Singapore was forced to return to the Thai capital on Wednesday (Jan 30), due to an unattended and unclaimed cabin bag.

In a statement, the budget airline said that Flight TR607, which took off at 11.55am, returned to Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport an hour after departure in the interests of safety.

The plane with 131 passengers on board landed at Suvarnabhumi Airport around 2.10pm Bangkok time (3.10pm Singapore time).

Scoot's preliminary investigations found that the airline's ground handling agent had seen an unattended bag in the gatehold room, and handed it to the flight's cabin crew thinking that it belonged to one of the passengers on TR607.

Cabin crew accepted the bag, "which was a breach of security protocols", but were unable to determine the owner of the bag.

"The captain was not informed of this issue till the flight had departed Bangkok," Scoot said.

However, he made the decision to return to Bangkok after he was alerted to the situation.

Passengers disembarked from the aircraft at the airport and security personnel conducted the necessary checks, the airline said.

The bag was removed from the aircraft by airport authorities, Scoot added.

Flight TR607 later departed Bangkok at 7.49pm local time, with a new set of operating crew.

Scoot said that passengers who miss their connecting flights in Singapore on Scoot or partner airlines, including Singapore Airlines and SilkAir, will be transferred to the next available flights.

"We sincerely apologise for the lapse and we will review our training processes to prevent a recurrence," Scoot said.

This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.