Wed rings, artificial limbs left behind by air travellers

Books, spectacles, mobile phones and cameras are not the only articles that passengers leave behind in a plane; interestingly, they forget to take with them strollers, wedding rings and even artificial limbs.

Passengers also leave behind their valuables like smartphones, iPods, cameras, iPads, kindles and even laptops, a survey by UK-based Virgin Atlantic airlines has found.
The survey of airline's cabin crew and ground staff found that majority of passengers forget to take with them articles like books, reading glasses, mobile phones, cameras, iPods, headphones, makeup kits, neck pillows, CDs and duty free shopping.

Surprisingly, items like wedding rings, baby strollers, shoes, passports and even artificial body parts were found left behind by the fliers, the airline said.

"Passengers leave all sorts of items on our flights ranging from the predictable to the quite unexpected. We were surprised to find an artificial limb left behind by one of our upper class passengers but were delighted that we were able to return them," said Stephen King, General Manager, Virgin Atlantic-India.

He said many passengers start their vacation the moment they get on the aircraft.
When they relax and get into a holiday mood, they often forget personal belongings onboard, he said.

The airline tries to return the items to the passengers but any item not claimed for more than six months, if not perishable, are donated for charitable causes, he said.
Virgin flies to 36 destinations worldwide, including locations across North America, the Caribbean, Africa, the Far East and Australia.

The airline has daily flights from Delhi and Mumbai connecting to the UK and the USA via London. It currently has a fleet of aircraft of Boeing 747-400s, Airbus A340-300s, A340-600s and A330-300s. The airline is expecting delivery of 16 Boeing 787 Dreamliners from 2014.