Tragic: She put her down for just a minute.

By SHAUNA ANDERSON

In a moment their lives were changed inexplicably.

A five-month old baby placed down for a minute her mother rushed after a busy flight, perhaps flustered the way we get when dealing with two children on your own.

A heartbreaking, devastating minute.

And in that minute five-month old Vashti was crushed to death, while her helpless mother watched, unable to save her baby girl.

The tragedy struck when Nathania Terry from Maryland in the United States was travelling from the UK to Spain for a holiday in September last year.

Her husband was already there ready to meet his family, waiting in the arrivals hall for his wife, his five-month old daughter and her older brother.

Five-month old Vashti had been traveling in her car seat on the plane and her mum carried her to the baggage hall still strapped into the seat.

It’s a way of travelling with babies that many parents choose in order to keep their children comfortable and safe on the plane.

Nathania placed the car seat on a stationary luggage carousel while she went to grab her stroller from the other end of the belt.

But the belt started up and baby Vashit was crushed to death.

Nathania is now suing the manufacturer of the conveyor belt.

According to the Court House News the complaint states “The belt suddenly and without warning turned on, throwing Vashti into a crevice where two different conveyor belts abutted.”

Her horrified mother was forced to watch as Vashit was crushed between two parts of the belt.

“Ms. Terry frantically tried to rescue Vashti, but her efforts were unsuccessful. Five-month old Vashti was crushed to death on Sept. 18, 2013.”

At the time an airport worker told Georgia News Day that “the baby ended up trapped in a 10cm hole where two belts converge. She appeared to have suffered from a fractured skull.”

The Spanish government conducted an inquiry into the incident saying that “the machine was not to blame for the tragedy “ and that “the luggage carousel adhered to legal standards”.

However in her complaint Nathania says that the conveyor belts at the airport, designed and manufactured by a Netherlands-based company called Vanderlande, had sensors that activated them when they detected objects.

She says placing the car seat on the belt put the conveyor in motion, throwing her daughter onto the luggage belt.

She claims there was no way to stop the conveyor and no warning about activating sensors.  She says there was no way at all in an emergency to stop the belt from moving.

She is seeking punitive damages for wrongful death of her daughter and is sueing for negligence, design defects and failure to warn.

Our thoughts are with this family as they struggle to deal with such an awful heartbreaking accident.