South Africans around the country are preparing for their yearly vacations booking flights, and accommodation and making lists of things not to forget. Once passengers pass through the boarding gates and holiday mode kicks in, the chances of losing personal items whilst travelling increase. LIFT conducted research and looked through its Lost and Found Index to establish what items are most commonly left on board and according to its data, some of the most commonly lost items include identity cards, bank cards, driver’s licences and even birth certificates.
The premium domestic carrier’s brand manager, Haydn Henning, said that while they found the usual suspects are the most commonly lost items, they had to ask the question of whether South Africans like spending time at Home Affairs considering the admin and time it takes to replace these items. He added that since the airline launched in 2020, the most common item lost at 36 000 ft is ‘glasses,’ both specs and sunnies. “A total of 212 pairs of glasses were left on board over the last 3.
5 years. A close second was the ID card. In fact, 138 people left their sense of identity on a LIFT flight since we took to the skies,” said Henning.
He also revealed that other items frequently left behind include caps, jerseys, the odd belt, as well as earphones and that busy parents are also likely to leave behind children’s items, which might be things dropped when disembarking including toy planes, trucks and dolls, as well .
