Jim Mitchell
Travel Trouble

Women thrown off flight for what she tried to smuggle on board

Although it’s an option to transport your pets with you when you fly, most pet owners will leave their furry friends behind when they go on a trip.

But one woman thought she’d try a sneaky way to smuggle her cat on board a British Airways flight from Glasgow to London Heathrow Airport. In the American’s hand luggage, her cat was stored inside a box with the passenger claiming it was necessary for “emotional support,” reported Yahoo 7.

The unidentified woman had somehow made it through airport security with the feline in her carry-on luggage. According to the Daily Mail an airport insider claimed that the security scanner “would not have picked up the cat as being alive, dead or stuffed".

Needless to say, she was removed from the October 21 flight, but not before the woman became panicked when she was asked to store the bag in an overhead locker as she was seated at an emergency exit.

It comes after some even more bizarre incidents of passengers attempting to smuggle “emotional support” animals on board flights. One woman was removed from a Frontier Airlines flight in the US earlier this month when she tried to bring a squirrel with her on her voyage, according to The Independent.

And earlier this year a United Airlines passenger wanted to stowaway her “emotional support peacock” named Dexter on a flight to Los Angeles, even attempting to buy the bird a ticket.

Speaking of the latest incident, a British Airways spokesman told The Independent that while cats weren’t allowed in plane cabins, assistance dogs were “very welcome".

“Cats cannot travel in the cabin but recognised assistance dogs are always very welcome and travel completely free of charge alongside their owners on board,” they said.

“Other animals will need to travel in the hold but will be just as comfortable in a carefully controlled environment," the spokesman added. 

What's the strangest thing you have seen a passenger bring on board a flight? Tell us in the comments below. 

Tags:
Pets, Cats, Smuggling, Travel trouble, International Travel, Flights, Planes, Airport Security