A passenger who lost her engagement ring on a Singapore Airlines (SIA) flight has turned to the Internet for advice.
In her Reddit post on Saturday (26 Oct), the woman said she had flown on SQ25 from Frankfurt to Singapore and disembarked at 6.30am that morning.
She was sitting in seat 32E in Premium Economy, she added.
The woman explained that she had kept the ring together with other jewellery in a small inside pocket near the top of her nylon backpack.
She had removed them so she could “clear customs”, she said.
The backpack was left unzipped and propped up against her footrest throughout the flight so that she could take items in and out easily.
The ring may have fallen out when her backpack folded in “like a peeled banana” in the dark during the flight, she suggested.
When the lights came on, she “simply zipped up (the) backpack and left the flight”, she added.
It was only after she reached home at 9.30am that she found that her jewellery had fallen into the bottom of her backpack.
While the rest of her jewellery was accounted for, her engagement ring was missing and she realised it must have fallen out onto the floor of the plane, she said, adding:
My heart shattered into a million pieces.
She described the item as a 2-carat diamond ring set with four claws and a thin platinum band.
Once the woman discovered the ring was missing, she tried searching for SIA’s lost and found hotline but the airline’s website directed her to the SATS lost and found hotline.
When she called it, she claimed that a “very tired voice” answered and “barely took down any details”.
In response to a question, the voice said she was from a “remote call centre” and no ring had been surrendered to them.
The passenger said she didn’t get any email confirmation that her case had been filed, though the same person called at 7pm to inform her that nothing had been turned in that day.
Out of desperation, the woman appealed to netizens on Reddit, hoping that a netizen who took the same plane could “have a look” around her seat, even though she knew it was a long shot.
Instead, netizens who managed to track the plane down to its registration number told her that it had not left Singapore yet as of Saturday evening.
With this information, the woman called SIA again, this time calling its scam hotline and receiving an answer immediately.
According to her, the lady on the other side said that she had to fill in a lost and found form online before she could do anything.
Despite being frustrated, the woman did this, only to be told that the system had her case logged as a missing “black pouch”.
After she told them that it was actually an engagement ring that was lost, the shocked lady put her on hold for 30 minutes.
When she returned, she said they would try their best and would send her an email if they found it.
However, the woman said she didn’t have much hope as the plane would be departing soon.
Based on the plane’s registration number, it landed in Tangerang, Indonesia on Sunday (27 Oct) night, according to FlightAware.
Netizens were largely sympathetic, sharing with her similar tales of items lost on planes. But one hopeful commenter said they retrieved a lost item as the cleaning crew had found it.
Others tried to help by advising her to search her backpack again, email SIA directly or even call Frankfurt Airport.
A respondent also told her not to travel with unnecessary jewellery next time.
Speaking to MS News, an SIA spokesperson said that they were aware of the incident and have reached out to the woman.
“We are in contact with the customer to keep her updated on our search efforts.”
Also read: Man Receives Laptop Intact After Leaving It On Flight, Praises Changi Airport & SIA’s Efficiency
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Featured image adapted from European Aviation Team on Facebook. Photo for illustration purposes only.
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