What really happens to your bag after you check it in?

Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. In the 1999 animated film, Toy Story 2, Buzz Lightyear and his fellow sentient playthings enter an airport's'back-of-the-house' to rescue Sheriff Woody Pride from a suitcase. Together the toys encounter a world of diverging conveyor belts, inclines and declines, and seemingly endless turns, all designed to carry checked baggage from an airline ticket counter or curbside kiosk to its intended flights. According to Michael Rangole, maintenance manager for Vanderlande Industries--the company that maintains and operates the baggage handling system at California's San José Mineta International Airport (SJC)--Toy Story 2 is incredibly accurate. "San Jose's system alone has over 120 curves," says Rangole.