Spirit Airlines Baggage Belt Swallows Small Child, Surprising No One

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Via NBC News:

Surveillance cameras caught a toddler’s journey through the baggage system of an airport after he managed to sneak past a ticket counter and climb on a conveyor belt on Monday.

The 2-year-old boy walked away from his mother at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport while she attempted to print out her boarding pass at a kiosk, according to an Atlanta police report. The mother told police she looked away from her son “for one second” and he disappeared.

Video footage released by the airport showed the boy walk through an unattended ticket counter and stand directly in front of a moving conveyor belt. The boy, wearing an orange shirt, climbs on to the belt and momentarily gets stuck before a black and yellow bag pushes him through to the other side of the wall.

Moments after he comes through a woman in a backpack can be seen running to the counter and a Spirit Airline employee stops the belt from moving.

Eventually the boy reached a Transportation Security Administration baggage area where TSA immediately noticed him come through on the belt and a man picks him up off the belt and to safety.

Emergency medical services treated the boy for a “severely swollen and bruised” right hand before he was transported to a hospital, according to the Atlanta police report.

First of all, the most important thing here is that the kid is going to be ok, because it could have been so much worse. Second, I’m not around kids a ton, but I do know it really only does take one split second for them to get out of sight & don’t blame the mom. THIRD – and I can’t believe I’m typing this – I don’t blame Spirit either. Even still I see a conveyor belt & have to fight the urge to hop on, so I can only imagine the allure to a child. I chalk this up to a freak thing adding to a long list of infamous Spirit Airlines tales. Classic Spirit, guys.

Speaking of, I reached out to Spirit Airlines for comment, but when the phone picked up all I could hear was screaming & a deep voice in the background which I’ve transcribed below:

“OM NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM, MOOOOORE, NEEEEED MORE CHILDREN TO FEED CONVEYOR BELT, FEEEED MEEEE, OM, NOM, NOM NOM NOM”

My God….