A CCTV footage showed a toddler’s journey through the baggage system at the Atlanta airport.
Lorenzo, 2, walked away from his mother at the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport while she was printing her boarding pass.
In the video, Lorenzo can be seen walking through the unattended ticket counter before he hops onto the moving conveyor belt.
The boy is soon knocked onto the other side of the belt by a large bag and begins his wild journey.
While Lorenzo goes through the baggage system, Edith Vega —his mother— was seen getting Spirit Airline staff to stop the conveyor belt.
Lorenzo tried to climb over luggage but is carried away and goes down several chutes before reaching the TSA baggage area, the video shows.
TSA staff quickly notice Lorenzo and rushed to pick him up, bringing him to safety.
Edith says she was ‘freaking out’ after he jumped onto a conveyor belt and fell through a luggage chute into a baggage room.
Lorenzo was confirmed to be hospitalized after the horrifying incident.
According to WSB-TV, Edith put Lorenzo down briefly so that she could print a boarding pass.
The mother looked up a few moments later to see him being taken away on the conveyor belt behind a Spirit Airlines counter.
Edith said she tried to get his son when she saw him at the end of the belt, but she wasn’t allowed to cross over.
“I just went blank, I was, like: “Hey, my son…”, I wanted to jump in and try to go get him but they didn’t allow me,” she said. “I was just freaking out and I’m, like, “Oh my goodness, I hope he’s OK. I hope he’s just enjoying the ride.”
Edith was told by staff that his son was riding around on the conveyor belt for around five minutes, and his journey included several twists and turns until he eventually fell into a luggage chute.
“When I tried to go after him, it was the end of the machine. He just went along ride away. I couldn’t even catch up,” Edith said.
Moreover, WSB-TV said that the airline said the ticket counter was closed at the time and there were no staff members nearby to get the child off the belt.
In other reports, a TSA worker alerted authorities after finding Lorenzo in the bag room with a broken right hand.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that the 2-year-old fractured his right hand and was taken to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite.
It remains unclear whether Lorenzo’s hand got stuck in the conveyor belt or whether it was damaged by another passenger’s luggage.
Edith said that she has not seen the bag room where her son actually ended up at the end of the conveyor belt ride.