Edit: Thanks for taking the time out to reply. I’m enjoying reading all the different explanations and view points.
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In the 1990s the baggage handling system at the Denver airport was a famous example of a huge software and hardware automation project that ended up way more riddled with problems than anyone predicted. The short version of why this can happen is that in order for a bag to get from the bag check to a plane or from a plane to baggage claim, hundreds or thousands of little decisions about whose bag it is, what flight they’re on, how to route the bag on the belts, how much force is required to divert the bag to a different belt, etc, all have to go right. It only takes one problem for things to go wrong.
It seems like one integrated system, but a baggage handling decision is actually a lot of smaller systems working together. At any point a human or a computer can make a mistake, and sometimes that results in lost is misrouted baggage.
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