On Tuesday, May 10, 2005, my wife Silvia and I left at 10;30 PM,  on a SATA plane,  from Boston to Lisbon, Portugal. The plane was full to capacity. We had to make a stop over at Ponta  Delgada, Azores, where we had the opportunity to meet for the first time Mr. Brasílio  Jose Dias, an excellent journalist, who has been writing a series of articles concerning the Portuguese inscriptions of Dighton Rock for the “Atlantico Expresso”.

The weather across the Atlantic was magnificent all the way and we even arrived at Lisbon Airport earlier than scheduled.  Our American passports were checked by the Portuguese  International Police without any problems.

Then we moved to the local where the carrousel  was working in order to pick our 3 bags. We got one, then the second one and waited about two more minutes to get the third one.  Immediately we noticed that this bag was so badly damaged that we could hardly recognized it. This bag had been mutilated, with several large holes, with brunt scars. It seemed that on its way the bag most likely, had been compressed by the steel cables of the carousel with such a force that caused the holes and the burns on the walls of the bag and on its contents inside.  We could guessed that my cloths would be damaged badly.

Immediately we looked for the Agency of Lost and Found, which exists in every airport, in order to file our complaint. It was 12;16 Lisbon time, and the number of the ticked we got was already no. 33. In the presence of a kind employee, we opened my bag which had the appearance as if  it had been in the war zone.

We verified that my complete new, blue suit (coat and trousers), presented several cuts caused by burns, making it a bundle of rags. My other light coat was with two large holes and even my pair of shoes  showed burn marks on the bottom. The lady at the Agency made a report of the items damaged and their value in dollars and sent it my e-mail to the SATA insurance.

Now we have to wait and see what will happen.  There will be some headaches before the conclusion of this unfortunate case.

The purpose of my writing this article,  describing what happened to me, is for the general public to be informed in case that a similar unfortunate case will happened to you, so you know what to do.

I intend to describe this episode also on my radio program “Ask the Physician” of Raul Benevides, in Fall River, Massachusetts and also to  show my rags on my television program “Medical Tribune” on  the Portuguese Channel, in New Bedford, MA ., for the Portuguese Americans of New England  to be also informed and aware of this  unpleasant happening.