380 Bags Soaked in Sewage at Nashville Airport

Umm.. ew. The luggage of around 380 passengers was sprayed with sewage-tainted water at the Nashville International Airport Thursday morning.

An airport spokesman told News 2 a toilet overflowed in a women’s bathroom around 5 a.m. after someone stuffed paper towels in the toilet. The water soaked the bathroom floor and leaked down onto a secure baggage handling area.

The water then sprayed a lot of bags as they passed by on a conveyor belt. As many as 380 bags got wet, some more than others.

The bags were held so they could be treated and cleaned, according to Tom Jurkovich, Vice President of Communications. He told News 2 no one was exposed, and they are not sure how contaminated the water was, but it did come from a toilet.

“You have to act like it is, as a practical matter,” Jurkovich explained.

Ten flights were delayed due to the problem.

Southwest passenger Kate Riley told News 2 she did not know her bag was involved until hours later.

“We were in Nashville, and they came on right before we boarded and said, ‘Oh, we’re having some issues with the luggage. Don’t worry. We’re getting all the bags on; there’s just an issue. But we’re just gonna load up and we’re gonna take off,’” she recalled.

Riley said her flight was delayed but did take off for Ft. Lauderdale. Passengers did not discover their luggage was missing until they went to baggage claim in Florida.

This is not the first time a toilet has overflowed and led to a similar situation at the Nashville airport. It also happened on June 1 just two months ago.

The airport is now looking at making structural changes to the drainage system in the bathroom so a leak doesn’t happen again.