Darla_Worden

On Saturday June 25, 2011, I was at Charles De Gaulle with my 17-year-old daughter who was flying alone from Paris to Denver. Terminal 2 was in mayhem--crowds of people clogged the hallways and nothing was moving, no one was being checked in. When I finally found an Air France representative they told me there was a bomb scare and that all flights would be delayed. Several hours later my daughter's plane left but without baggage. When I"ve looked online for news stories about this bomb scare I haven't found any information. Was anyone else at Charles De Gaulle during this time?

madamtrashheap

It happens sometimes that someone leaves a bag (unintentionally or otherwise) and that causes all alerts to kick in, hence the evacuation and disruption. It happens in many airports, train stations and public places around Europe (nay, the world) and the policy is to treat an unattended bag as suspicious, call in the bomb squad and "dispose" of the piece. As you found, everything shuts down until the all clear is given. Happened to me on the Eiffel Tower one year, and all it turned out to be was a visitor walked away from their backpack while they took photos, caused the tower to be evacuated and closed for 2hrs. Didn't get reported in any news, which is no surprise as it happens more frequently that we'd like to think. People get tired/forgetful/distracted when travelling and don't consider their surroundings. Glad all was OK eventually though. Sadly, luggage not making the flight can happed at CDG on any average uninterupted day!

kerouac

Unattended luggage is blown up on a daily basis (under a lead lined blanket) at CDG. Even though it always disrupts some flights for up to an hour, it is not considered newsworthy. The day they really find a bomb, it will be in the news.

grimmy

We experienced the same thing May 23. We were told it was very common. Not newsworthy.

Gretchen

We had it happen one time leaving CDG. As everyone says it just totally disrupts everything. They had to turn off the "octopus" escalators that take everyone up to the immigration level from checkin because they could not handle the weight/crowd from the backup. People were trying to make flights, etc. Just a mess for a kid's backpack. We watched the little robot move to the backpack in the downstairs area below checkin.

Barbara_in_FL

We missed a flight a few years ago because an unattended bag had shut down the entrance from the RER to the terminal. But when we finally got to the Air France counter, the folks there seemed to have no idea what we were talking about. It certainly didn't keep them from checking people in!

chartley

I think these incidents go unreported because too much publicity might encourage copycat events.

Here in the U.K., it is still quite common for building work to uncover unexploded bombs from the Second World War. The army are then called in to carry out a controlled explosion. Such events may be reported, but do not have a high profile.

sumrcr

"Terminal 2 was in mayhem--crowds of people clogged the hallways and nothing was moving, no one was being checked in."

Sounds like just another day at CDG, even when there is no bomb scare.

ldh

In 2008 on a flight from Detroit to Milan we were 1/2 way across the ocean when it was noticed that there was a bag in the luggage hold that had no matching passenger on board. We had to return to the US, landing in Boston, for the bag to be removed. We were nearly 7 hours late in arriving. What I couldn't understand was that if the rule is no flying if a bag is checked and no passenger gets on the plane that matches it, how did we manage to get the ok to take off in the first place. Understand the need for the rule, but it shows that sometimes things get overlooked.

kerouac

That is so silly. In recent years, flying standby -- or rather <b>not</b> flying because I got bumped at the last minute -- my baggage has made the trip without me more than once, even though I was told that it was "<i>absolutely not possible</i>" for security reasons. Yeah, right! However, it is great to arrive the next day and just pick up your bag from the baggage claim desk while everybody is waiting for their suitcases to finally start riding around on the delivery belt.

sciazzy

I was there on that day with my husband, we were returning home to Australia. We had about 10-15 minutes left before boarding time, when all of a sudden there was this noise which sounded like someone blowing a muted whistle hard several times then there was this almighty bang, everyone jumped up or turned around to look in the direction it came from witch was just across from where we were but we couldn't see it. It did sound like an explosion or then we thought because we heard the whistle then the noise maybe someone got shot. I have to say it was quite frightening I was up in an instant ready to start running but we looked around at other people closer by or who had seen what was going on and they were laughing and shrugging their shoulders like whatever it was, was no big deal, the staff did not seem bothered and shortly after we boarded our flight home.