African story: Ghanair's scandal: airport staff face arrest

[SN30952]

= $100,000 excess baggage cash unaccounted for...
= Airport manager handed over to police....
It was check-in time on February 29, 2004. Ghana Airways was flying from Accra to Baltimore in the United States of America. Hours before the flight, passengers in a long queue were spotted busily checking in their baggage.
After check-in, the manifest, which provided information on the list of passengers with the total baggage weight on board the flight, indicated that the weight of checked-in baggage was 6.76 tonnes.
Surprisingly, the load sheet, which also indicated the weight of checked-in baggage of all persons on the aircraft, revealed that the total weight of baggage on board, that fateful day, was 16 tonnes, indicating that 9.3 tonnes of baggage was unaccounted for.
I a normal procedure, the 2 figures, one on the manifest and the one on the load sheet in respect of the weight of checked-in baggage have to be the same and must be certified by the Captain of the flight before take-off.
The charge per kilogram of excess baggage is about $12, meaning that the total loss of revenue to the airline on that day was about $100,000.

This 'fraud and malpractices' of Ghanair staff in the handling of excess baggage resulted in a huge loss of revenue to the ailing airline.

Mr. Roland Monsori, Ghana Airways Airport Manager in charge of operations that day, was said to have been handed over to the Airport police late last week for further investigations.
Mr. Monsori was to assist in arresting all staff on duty that day to explain the loss, failure of which would result in police prosecution.

Ghana's national airline has been overwhelmed by debts.

No need to corrupt the check-in agents at Accra airport... They are un-corruptable! They take all the money.