Officials Tackle Chaos Left Behind After Christmas' Foggy Weather

British Airways says fog that delayed flights for days around Christmas didn't just affect holiday travelers -- some were separated from their luggage leaving a "mountain" of unclaimed bags at London's Heathrow.

Officials with the airline say at least half of the unclaimed baggage at the airport belongs to its customers, and it plans to start tackling the problem today.

A BA spokesman told the UK's Press Association, "The problem began before Christmas when there was a fault with a baggage belt at Heathrow Terminal 4. That caused the initial backlog, and about 8,000 bags were not delivered. Then the fog at Heathrow caused further problems, and there was another Terminal 4 baggage belt problem on December 29."

The ensuing chaos left around 10,000 stranded bags at the airport. BA has chartered freighter aircraft and drafted volunteers to help reunite bags with their owners.

Despite the current mess, BA says it could have been worse. "To put the whole thing into context, we dealt with about 75,000 bags a day at Heathrow over the festive period and handled about one million passengers."

The airline says it hasn't been able to deal with the problem until after the holiday travel season, adding backlogs like this take time to clear because added security measures complicates handling delayed baggage.

The airlines has apologized to its affected customers and says it plans to return all bags over the next 48 hours.

FMI: www.britishairways.com