January 02, 2009	Friday	Muharram 04, 1430

LONDON, Jan 1: A British family enjoyed a Christmas break in Paris but were flabbergasted to find that luggage containing gifts for their children travelled to Afghanistan, a report said on Thursday.

David and Marie Bennett had packed two cases for their trip to the French capital, one for themselves and one for their children, Francoise, 13, and 10-year-old Remi, the Guardian reported.

They flew from Southampton airport to Paris’ Charles de Gaulle shortly before Christmas but were heartbroken when the children’s bag, loaded with their presents and clothes, went missing.

The family, from Brockenhurst near Southampton in southeast England, gritted their teeth and made the most of their time in Paris.

It was only when they returned home that they discovered how far the suitcase had wandered when it turned up in England after six days away from its owners with the International Air Transport Association airport code “FAH”.

When airport staff looked up the unfamiliar code they were astonished to find it stands for Farah, a city in western Afghanistan.

It remains a mystery how it got there as there are no direct flights to Farah from Charles de Gaulle or Southampton.

David Bennett, 48, said: “We are still none the wiser about the suitcase’s journey. I imagine it must have just disappeared down a chute to Afghanistan.

“It’s like some sort of Disney film where a mistake leads to a suitcase taking its own holiday. When we finally picked up the bag it had about five different labels.

“There was even a note from Hampshire police saying they’d gone through the bag because of where it had come from.” Air France was investigating how the case went missing.—AFP