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Luggage contaminated by sewage water at Nashville airport

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A sewage mishap at Nashville International Airport left luggage with a coating of sewage water and several passengers without their luggage.

Airport officials said a toilet near the C5 gate near Southwest clogged around 5 a.m. Wednesday.

Cleaning crews noticed someone had stuffed paper towels in a toilet in the women's restroom which caused the toilet to overflow.

 

The sewage water dripped down through the ceiling and onto the Southwest baggage claim on the floor below it.

When officials noticed the problem, they began removing about 380 bags off the convert belt, but officials said a small amount of those bags were potentially exposed.

In the meantime, 10 flights were delayed about 10-20 minutes as officials sorted through the hundreds of bags. Airport officials said a "number" of bags exposed with the water were not placed on planes. The exact number was not released.

An environmental cleanup crew was brought in to clean up the spill.

It was unclear how customers would need to go about retrieving those bags or where they would be placed in the meantime.

A similar leak has happened at the airport before. Therefore, airport officials said they were looking into making structural changes to the drainage system in the bathroom to make sure a leak like this does not happen again.