For domestic flights, I do not believe they check to see if you are on the plane if they loaded your bag on the plane. If a person checked in for a flight, then became sick and could not take the flight, or became too afraid to fly if this was their first flight, I would think that the bag would be loaded on the plane, especially if the passenger did not promptly inform the airline.

I have already arrived at the airport and right before checking in got a call from my secretary that the out of town meeting was canceled. So I did not yet check the bag. But if the call was 30 minutes later, I doubt that I would have been able to retrieve the bag if it had been loaded. As I stated above, I could not get on the plane 7 minutes before the flight even though I could see them loading my bags on the plane.

I trust TSA's bag inspection and the ability to "red tag" the bad for a special separation inspection by TSA. TSA does a thorough inspection as established by several interior parts of my luggage that have been broken by them.