Left Something on the Plane? Here's How to Get it Back

We have all done it, we have all left something behind on the plane after a flight. From phones to handbags, laptops to jackets and shoes, and it’s not always possible to get these items back. Once you disembark the aircraft, you are not allowed to get back on to search for an item you may have left behind, and usually, you are halfway to baggage reclaim before you realise that you’re missing something.

Now, instead of just going to the lost and found desk at Dublin airport, you can contact an outside company and pay a fee to have your items returned. ‘We return it‘ will try to find your missing items and return your property by post not only in Ireland, but also worldwide, for a fee. Lost items will cost you anywhere from 43 euro for a mobile phone to 55 euro for a tablet, and up to 80 euro to have your laptop returned.

The items left behind most frequently include the above mentioned, but also handbags, purses, cameras, game consoles and headphones. But what are the most unusual items people have left on aircraft and have they come back to claim them? Well, according to Euronews, some of the weirder things people have either forgotten or discarded on an aircraft include a ‘Rattlesnake preserved in whiskey’, a ‘toilet seat’, a ‘suit of armour’ and a ‘glass eye’.

In 2024, over 36 million bags were mishandled by airlines – either lost, stolen or damaged. That’s around seven bags for every thousand checked in. While many bags are ultimately reunited with their owner, a small percentage are lost forever. Most bags contain nothing more than mundane items of clothing and a few toiletries. But some people travel with much stranger belongings. According to ‘Unclaimed Baggage’, a US-based retailer that sells items from unclaimed airline luggage, these odd items such as the rattlesnake in whiskey are just the tip of the iceberg. Its ‘Found Report‘ uncovers the strangest, most expensive and most commonly lost items. Everything from Cartier and Tag Heuer watches, to Chanel handbags to other designer items of clothing from the likes of Hermes, all can be found on their website, and at one time, all of these items belonged to someone travelling on a flight, who either got distracted or simply forgot to take their things with them as they left the plane.