A Singapore Airlines baggage handler has been caught deliberately mislabeling 286 suitcases over three months and has been sent to jail for 20 days. Singapore Airlines paid out over $30,000 USD in compensation for each of those customers who were left without their belongings across the world.

What are the details?

Losing your baggage whilst traveling a relatively common occurrence. Whilst frustrating, you are generally taken care of by the airline (well most anyway, there are plenty of stories of passengers being left in the dark) and only need to wait patiently whilst this mistake is rectified.

Because... it is a mistake, right? Well, apparently not always, as we have seen in Singapore.

A baggage handler working at Changi Airport in Singapore, for the outsourcing firm company Lian Cheng Contracting, was frustrated with the lack of support they were getting from client Singapore Airlines.

According to Point Me To The Plane, the handler felt that they were overworked and underpaid in their role in checking baggage before it was put onto Singapore aircraft. They were sick of being ignored and would, therefore, involve themselves in a little mischief.

During the course of three months, November 2016 to February 2017, the baggage handler decided to relabel and redirect luggage to as many far-flung destinations as possible.

Overall he managed to redirect 286 items of luggage, which Singapore had to find and send back to their customers (whilst at the same time paying out to compensate passengers) before he was caught. And this was no small amount, coming to a total of around S$42,000 (USD $30,000).

Likely if you flew on a Singapore or Silk Air flight during this period and lost your luggage, it could very well be that your luggage was not lost at all, but rather redirected.

What was his punishment?

Naturally, he lost his job at the contracting company and would likely have problems booking on Singapore Airlines' flights in the future.

But turns out that his actions are actually classed as 'criminally mischief' and he was on the hook for jail time. The judge sentenced him to 20 days in jail, one for each day he deliberately relabeled the luggage.

There is no mention at this stage if the handler will appeal the decision or if Singapore will be seeking additional compensation for the lost money.

Now from an armchair perspective, it does seem like that the baggage handler is in a bit of a bind. Sure, he committed mischief by ruining holidays and redirecting precious items (and we are in no way excusing that), but it seems he was stressed from the problems impacting his workplace.

The problem is that he was simply a contractor for Singapore rather than a full employee. The contracting company created the conditions for him to do this and should be looked into to really see if they offered all the support they could.

Needless to say, demanding better working conditions should not result in a conviction on your permanent record. It is likely this handler will not be able to get a job in an airport ever again.

Simple Flying reached out to Singapore Airlines for comment, but they have not replied at the time of publishing this article.

What do you think? Should he be punished? Let us know in the comments!