Report: Sky Harbor bag scales give ‘subpar’ performance
Nov 4, 2013, 1:03 PM | Updated: 1:04 pm
PHOENIX — Baggage scales at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport were not up to par during a recent inspection, a report by the Arizona Department of Weights and Measures said.
“[It was a] subpar performance all around,” said Shawn Marquez with the department. “We check about 196 scales and of those we found 57 violations.”
Marquez said those violations ranged from broken digital displays to scale errors.
“Scales that wouldn’t start on zero,” said. “They were already showing a number, so to speak, on there with no weight on there.”
Marquez said the inspection also caught fives scales that someone had likely tried to fix.
“We actually found wood underneath the scales in between the load cells and the platforms,” he said. “I think they were doing this to try to level it out a little bit.”
The affected scales were immediately removed from service.
“When we find scale programs that are detrimental to the consumer, we lock the scales down right there at the moment,” said Marquez.
The airlines that had scale issues were American, Delta, United, Southwest and US Airways. All others passed.
