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For terrorism concerns I think many airlines offload checked in baggage if a passenger somehow does not end up travelling on a flight.

How strictly are these rules followed? e.g. If a connecting passenger with a tight connection cannot make it to the gate in time will the airline actually send in a ramp guy into the baggage hold to remove specific pieces of baggage? How feasible is it to do thing when the bags are in pods or the Unit Load Devices? Do they have to remove the load device from the hold before they can extract a specific bag?

How does the gate delay of just waiting for the errant, late passenger compare to the time & effort needed to find & offload his bags?

PS. Since bags do get misrouted I'm sure at least some bags fly without a passenger owning them on board.

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  • I'm voting to close this question as there are too many sub-questions contained. You may wish to narrow the scope. – kevin Nov 22 '15 at 04:37
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    The sub-questions are all facets of the same issue. They aren't unrelated. In a way, the questions only serve to clarify the question. – curious_cat Nov 22 '15 at 06:08
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    "How strictly are these rules followed?": Suppose they are not, do you want anybody to know it? – mins Nov 22 '15 at 12:15
  • I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because this question cannot be answered, for obvious security reasons. – mins Nov 22 '15 at 12:18
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    AFAIK the rules that prevent baggage to be loaded if the owner is not on the flight only apply to persons on a watch list. Their luggage is set aside until they board. That happened with some of the 9/11 hijackers and is probably why Mohammed Atta's bags were left behind. It would be way too difficult to do this with every passenger on every flight. – TomMcW Nov 22 '15 at 16:13
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    @TomMcW: You should say that it's for the US, EU uses other rules: "5.3.3.2 Hold baggage that becomes unaccompanied baggage due to factors other than those mentioned in point 5.3.2 shall be removed from the aircraft and rescreened before loading it again." – mins Nov 22 '15 at 17:58
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    @mins Don't you hate having to keep reminding us Americans that the rest of the world exists. :) – TomMcW Nov 22 '15 at 18:03
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    @TomMcW I think the rules on that have changed in the U.S. since 9/11, too. As far as I know, it's still not completely guaranteed that your bags won't fly without you, but it's less likely now. – reirab Nov 22 '15 at 19:24
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    By the way, there's already some information about this topic on travel.SE: Would I delay flights, when not showing up for part of the journey? – reirab Nov 22 '15 at 19:31
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because I feel it belongs to travel.SE – vasin1987 Nov 26 '15 at 13:18
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    My luggage was unloaded of the plane when I missed my connecting flight in Mosocow (didn't showed up in time at the gate). The route was CDG=>SVO=>ULN So yes, baggages ARE offloaded. – Antzi Nov 26 '15 at 15:53

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Normally, baggage takes much longer to switch flights than self-loading cargo, so your scenario is highly unlikely.

In the event of a passenger missing and his/her baggage already on board, all bags need to be unloaded until the orphaned bag is found. When ULDs are used, those must be unloaded first and are then unpacked, mostly on the apron next to the aircraft.

Waiting for the missing passenger is an open-ended game. At some point, you must decide on a course of action with a fixed exit so you can move on.

Normally, every airline is required to unload an orphaned bag. I am sure some are more strict about this than others.

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