Airport Luggage Belt Kills Five-Month-Old Baby

An airport luggage belt has killed a five-month-old baby in Spain after the mother allegedly rested her child on the belt and became distracted, unaware the child’s weight had activated the device, according to a report from Yahoo! 7 News.

Efforts at resuscitation proved unsuccessful. The child was believed to have died when it became trapped in the rollers.

According to Thursday’s report, the five-month-old was at the baggage claim in Alicante airport in the care of its American mother and Canadian father after a flight from London.

(The gender of the baby has been withheld along with the identities of the family, who are said to be “distraught” over the accident.)

A Civil Guard spokesman said that police had launched an investigation, but “It all appears to have been an accident, a case of carelessness.”

“The mother left the baby on the conveyor belt, which can be activated by detecting weight or by an airport employee,” the spokesman explained. “It seems that the baby carrier’s weight activated the belt and the child was trapped in the rollers in the drop zone.”

An airport spokesperson added in comments to the Associated Foreign Press that it was not known if the baby was placed on the airport luggage belt directly or if the child was in a cradle.

According to an airport spokeswoman, the baggage carousel is a flat, black rubber-type belt that moves only in one direction and is only activated when over-sized bags are sent out on it for pickup. It’s several feet long and passengers can stand on either side of it or at the receiving end.

CNN reported that an unidentified security officer had told their affiliate the mother “apparently put [the baby] down on the conveyer belt when she went to reach for something. He was crushed by the conveyer belt and it killed him.”

Unfortunately the airport luggage belt death is just the latest of many recent tragedies. Just a couple of days ago, we brought you the story of a longtime Ohio sportscaster who lost his daughter in a car crash.

Then about a week ago, two-year-old Maddox Derkosh was killed by a pack of African dogs at the Pittsburgh Zoo. Zoo attorneys blamed the mother for failing to “maintain a proper grasp” of her son, adding that she should have realized the risk in lifting her son above the railing.

Do you think there should be any legal action brought forth in the airport luggage belt death?

[Image via ShutterStock]