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A toddler took a ride on the baggage conveyor belt all the way from the ticketing desk to the baggage room at Newark Liberty International Airport before being rescued and caught by officers.
The two-year-old reportedly slipped behind the JetBlue ticketing counter inside the New Jersey airport’s Terminal A on May 28 shortly before 6:30 p.m. and hopped onto the conveyor belt luggage system, according to Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
Authorities quickly sprang into action and located the child in the checked baggage room on the lower level. Daily News reported responding officers also hopped onto the conveyor belt to follow the child during the rescue.
The child was not injured, authorities said, and though medics were requested as a precaution, the child’s parents declined further medical attention.
No further information was available, and it is not known if the toddler was a girl or boy and if the family made it to their flight.
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Not the first time
Wednesday’s incident was not the first time a child found themselves in a precarious situation at the airport.
In 2021, a 9-year-old boy, who had wandered away from his family, had climbed onto an airport luggage belt at Minneapolis Airport where he had gotten pulled inside, ABC News had reported. While Delta staff stopped the belt to rescue him, the boy escaped to another belt, which took him to the screening area. Video footage from the incident showed him crawling out and jumping down.
Earlier, in 2019, a two-year-old toddler took a ride through Spirit’s baggage system at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, climbing over bags and passing inside an X-ray machine before going down a ramp into a large baggage screening room where TSA agents found him and called for help USA TODAY previously reported. The child suffered a fractured hand and cuts to his arm.
Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at sshafiq@gannett.com and follow her on X and Instagram @saman_shafiq7.
