The bag without the passenger

SO much for airport/airline security. I was recently at LAX to meet an American Airlines flight from Chicago. The passenger I was meeting had arrived very early at O’Hare for her flight, checked in her luggage and waited. When her scheduled flight did arrive (1 1/2 hours late), we found her luggage on a carousel, unattended and not secured. The luggage had come in on an earlier flight.

How can airlines, with all their “security measures,” allow luggage to travel without the passenger?

MAUREEN GILCHRIST

Van Nuys

Editor’s note: As today’s Page 1 story about lost luggage notes, due to better screening, most airlines no longer match luggage to passengers on domestic flights.