The Philadelphia Inquirer reported not long ago on a baggage incident on the 23rd at Philadelphia International Airport. By 11PM, the passengers from Flight 30 from Las Vegas had been waiting for their bags for an hour and a half. No information on the delay was available.
Robert Ensign of California, one of these passengers, became abusive and belligerent to the point that the USAirways agents called the police. He continued to curse after the police arrived, and somehow, he ended up on the baggage carousel with the officers on top of him.
The police insist they tried to calm Ensign down, but he backed away and fell on the carousel and when they tried to subdue him, several fell on top of him. They describe him as “hostile, out of control, shouting at officers.”
Contrastly, another passenger insists they picked him up and threw him on the belt, then picked him up again and dragged him 15 feet and that his shirt was ripped off. Ensign’s wife insists they were using excessive force and that other passengers kept insisting he did nothing.
The general consensus seems to be that Ensign was upset and cursing about the baggage situation, but everyone there was upset. He merely was loud.
USAirways says it is spending five million dollars to upgrade its baggage handling facilities after an excessive number of complaints, which even its CEO admits indicate the system is not up to par.