{"id":323455,"date":"2026-06-29T16:05:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T16:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/323455\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T16:05:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T16:05:10","slug":"orlando-airport-passengers-threatened-with-arrest-if-they-left-customs-without-checked-bags-during-5-hour-delay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/323455\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando Airport Passengers Threatened With Arrest If They Left Customs Without Checked Bags During 5-Hour Delay"},"content":{"rendered":"

International arriving passengers landing in Orlando around 7 p.m. on Saturday, June 27 were told that their bags were \u201cslightly delayed\u201d because of weather. Since passengers coming off of international flights have to wait for their bags to bring them through customs (and re-check them if connecting to another flight), everyone was trapped<\/a>. And they were threatened with arrest if they tried to exit customs instead of waiting for their luggage.\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

But by midnight, an estimate 800 passengers still lacked bags and international arrivals was overwhelmed with passengers. People were lying on the floor. One customer collapsed and emergency cre responded.<\/p>\n

Virgin Atlantic emailed passengers that snacks would be reimbursed due to the delay, but there are no eateries in the customers area. The airport blamed weather. And passengers were told \u201cthey could not leave without their bags or risk being arrested.\u201d<\/p>\n

If bags are delayed and not physically available for inspection, \u201cleaving without baggage\u201d is not the same as abandoning inspected bags or evading customs.
\nPeople leave all the time without their bas when bags don\u2019t make it to their destination on time!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Weather was certainly an issue but that doesn\u2019t excuse five hours in a customs hall with no food, seating, and arrest threats.<\/p>\n

Weather Alert \u26c8\ufe0f Due to weather conditions in the area, airline operations may be affected \u2013 flight\/baggage delivery delays may occur. Please check with your airline directly for any updates regarding their operations. For airport status, visit: https:\/\/t.co\/vm0yMYHkcv<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Orlando International Airport (@MCO) June 25, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

One passenger shares their story<\/a>,<\/p>\n

My family flew back home yesterday, my home airport is Orlando International Airport (MCO). Eight and a half hour flight, and we landed just in the nick of time to deplane before a storm came through. That dang storm stayed over top of us for about an hour and a half, which created a ground stoppage. <\/p>\n

We got through passport control pretty quickly, and then had to wait for luggage. After the 1.5 hr storm and the 30 mins of no lightening strikes they said was required to resume operations, the luggage for two other flights started coming. We were the 3rd flight and should have been next, but still we waited. <\/p>\n

Two other international flights landed, cleared border patrol and they all got their luggage\u2026all while we waited. No answers from the Virgin Atlantic reps\u2026the supervisor refused to come speak to all of us. People with AirTags in their luggage had pings from the other side of the airport. <\/p>\n

Since we were in a controlled border patrol area, you aren\u2019t allowed to leave without your luggage, you can\u2019t come back in once you leave, and there was no food, no vending machines, no seating. In all, we ended up waiting over FIVE HOURS for our luggage.<\/p>\n

The idea of being arrested for not collecting your bags flummoxes me. There are passengers who would naturally not have checked bags, and they would exit. Certainly border officials can check passengers against whether their records show checked bags, but it would be unusual to do this. Generally they just choose whom to pull over for additional screening, rather than stopping each passenger. So most would just leave the airport unaccosted, although they\u2019d have to deal with customs clearance on their luggage later.<\/p>\n

(HT: JonNYC<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\n\tMore From View from the Wing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"International arriving passengers landing in Orlando around 7 p.m. on Saturday, June 27 were told that their bags…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323456,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[139,141,140],"class_list":["post-323455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}