One beagle working at Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport managed to sniff out a bag containing 21 plants and bags of bulbs prohibited in the US.
Gatsby the beagle was doing his inspections when he took an interest in the bags belong to a family from Frederick County, Virginia who had flown in from Iceland and declared that they only had tulip bulbs. The plants and bulbs were destroyed.
In a statement, officials said: “It may be more of a vest than a cape on their backs, but The Great Gatsby proves once again that U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Beagle Brigade are superheroes.”
First day, last day?
On your first day in a new job, you wish to impress and hope not to do anything too silly or embarrassing. For one British Airways steward, their first day did not get off to the best of starts when he managed to accidentally activate the aircraft’s emergency slide.
The new starter was working on a flight from London Heathrow to Lagos, Nigeria, when he triggered an evacuation procedure by opening an escape door, deploying the inflatable emergency slide. As the mandatory safety item could no longer be used, a replacement aircraft had to be found and passengers were delayed by several hours. The incident is reported to have cost British Airways £50,000 with costs consisting of a replacement slide, missing the allocated take-off slot and using a replacement film.
In a statement, British Airways said the aircraft returned to its stand, customers were able to disembark as normal and the airline apologised for the inconvenience. There was no word whether the employee wanted to stay for a second day or if the airline invited him back.
Expensive parking
Parking at airports can be expensive, which, increasingly, airport operators say is to encourage passengers to use public transport to get to the airport and not to drive. For one passenger using Manchester Airport, it seemed particularly determined to discourage her from driving by charging her £580 to drop off a relative instead of the usual fee of £6.
The woman was charged the fee used the car park on 2 January and when she contacted the airport, they acknowledged the mistake but could find no record of the transaction. An email suggested that the error was caused by the woman using the car park on an earlier visit before Christmas and the system not registering her leaving. The airport has issued a refund.
Packing heat
In the US, it is legal to carry firearms if they are in checked bags and have been properly declared. At San Antonio International Airport in Texas, a passenger had an 84mm calibre anti-tank rifle seized, which they did not declare. The rifle can be legally owned in the Lone Star state, but it requires extensive background checks.
A TSA spokeswoman told local media: “We don’t see that caliber of weapon very often, thank god.”
The case was handed over to the San Antonio Police Department, who will determine if the passenger faces charges.
More than 6,500 firearms were found in carry-on luggage in 2022 and out of the top 10 airports where federal authorities found the firearms, three of them, Austin, Dallas and Houston, are in Texas.
Not dope
Passenger flying from Los Angeles to London Heathrow are facing extra security checks after 11 passengers were arrested on suspicion of smuggling cannabis in eight days. Cannabis grown in California, where it is legal, is in high demand in the UK.
Between 10 and 17 January, 11 passengers were stopped and more than 400kg of cannabis was seized with an estimated street value of over £5 million. Each courier was carrying between 30 and 40 kgs in vacuum sealed bags placed in their checked luggage. Of the 11, nine have been charged and two were still being questioned at the time of writing.
Nuclear cargo
A man has been arrested on suspicion of terror offences and released on bail after traces of uranium were found in cargo at Heathrow Airport in December. He was arrested under section 9 of the Terrorism Act 2006 covering the making and possession of radioactive devices and materials. He has been released on bail until April. The uranium was discovered in a shipment of scrap metal during routine screening on 29 December.
