Your first time flying can be a nerve-wracking experience. Airport signs are confusing, you aren’t sure what you can take through security, and baggage rules are probably a bit unclear. And since airports are such public places, chances are whatever faux pas you commit will be seen and silently judged by pretty much everyone. Unfortunately, this woman at Istanbul Airport in Turkey had a pretty major airport embarrassment. A first-time flyer, she wasn’t exactly sure how to manage the luggage belt at the check-in counter and didn’t exactly use it correctly.
First-Time Flyer Tries Boarding Luggage Conveyor Belt Thinking It’s a Moving Sidewalk
A surveillance video from the recently opened airport shows the woman not placing her luggage on the belt, as she is meant to, but stepping into it herself. She first stands on the luggage scale, and then, after pausing for a moment, proceeds to the belt where she is immediately swept off her feet — and not in a good way. She falls onto her back, and two check-in assistants hurried to stop the belt. It’s unclear exactly what the woman was thinking, but she likely believed the belt would bring her either to security or to the gate itself.
Inadvertently, she may have actually stumbled upon a pretty cool airport innovation. Much like the moving sidewalks, if luggage belts could be repurposed to convey passengers to their gates, or even to the correct security line, it could potentially make the entire airport process much easier. It sounds pretty unlikely, but then again, so does someone falling onto a luggage conveyor belt.
H/T: Secret Flying