Unclaimed Delta luggage sits at Sky Harbor Airport following global tech outage
Hundreds of unclaimed bags sit at Sky Harbor Airport as Delta Air Lines struggles to deal with last week's global tech outage.
PHOENIX - The global IT outage from last week is still impacting Delta Air Lines customers.
Sky Harbor's baggage claim is filled with unclaimed luggage, but who is looking after it to prevent theft?
It's the million-dollar question with hundreds of bags sitting in Sky Harbor Airport for days.
There are about six areas with luggage and some of the owners have no idea their bag is there.
Delta customers are worried their luggage will not be returned following a global tech outage that has disrupted the company's operations.
What are passengers saying?
"It's a tragedy. It's a really messed up situation," flier Douglas Carlson said.
"I don't know where all these people are. There are a lot of bags," another flier, Laurie Marlowe said.
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Hundreds of Delta customers were left in confusion after their luggage pieces never made it to their final destination.
We even attempted to call some of the names on the bags, and the responses were similar.
Others had a bit more luck and knew their luggage was at Sky Harbor Airport—they just didn't know where exactly.
"Well, I've been tracking it and it's supposed to be in another state. It's never supposed to be in Phoenix," said another traveler.
"It doesn't seem to be organized in any way"
"I'm traveling with two, so I'm looking for one more now. I found one," said Carlson.
We interviewed Marlowe who also found one of her bags after searching for 40 minutes, and as we were interviewing her, she was relieved an employee had found the last of her luggage.
"Did you get it? Yay! I swear we looked on this aisle," she said.
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Searching for your luggage in a sea of suitcases is no easy task, but as Delta customers do just that, they have to wonder if their bag is there or if it was stolen.
"I'm a little concerned about that because we did have issues years ago with a lot of theft of bags and it doesn't seem to be organized in any way. Not by flight or type of bag, so I'm a little concerned. I have expensive gear in the other bag I'm trying to find," Carlson said.
Who is responsible? The airport or the airlines?
Sky Harbor officials say the airlines are responsible for transporting and delivering their passengers’ luggage.
We asked Delta Air Lines about luggage security, and we're still waiting for their answer.
Delta issued a statement that customers who were still missing their luggage can submit a claim in-person or online.
However, we did see police and Sky Harbor employees walk around the luggage and work to get some luggage sent to the correct airport, as we made calls and let some people know where they could find their bag,
Many customers we spoke with today say next time they are going to use an AirTag to track their bag.
They are also considering not flying anymore because of how hectic their most recent experience was.