A small monkey made it through customs and onto an airplane unnoticed until passengers spotted it during flight on Tuesday. The male smuggler had stashed it under his hat and no one knew.
The monkey escapade began in Lima, Peru, late Monday, when the man boarded a flight to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said Spirit Airlines spokeswoman Alison Russell. After landing Tuesday morning, the man waited several hours before catching a connecting flight to LaGuardia Airport.
During the flight, people around the man noticed that the marmoset, which normally lives in forests and eats fruit and insects, had emerged from underneath his hat, Russell said.
I think I would be quite amused by this if I had been a passenger on this flight, however I find it a bit unnerving that they made it through security.
Airport police were waiting for the man and his monkey when the plane landed about 3 p.m., and the man was taken away for questioning. It was unclear whether he would face any criminal charges.
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Posted by Lucy.
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The rules for security are different depending on where you are.
In France and Amsterdam, each and every passenger have to speak to a security office who ask you a series of questions.
In Mexico- you pretty much can walk onto the plane!
You wouldn’t be so surprised the monkey made it on if you’d traveled South American airlines much. I went through a metal detector in Ecuador with a hotel key on a huge brass keytag (I had forgotten to return it) and it didn’t register. The first metal detector I went through here in the U.S. went off. Peru is right above Ecuador, and of similar (though perhaps slightly better) economic standing.
Why do terrorist want to blow us up and not Mexicans? Aren’t they “infidels” too? I’m starting to think that Osama bin Laden’s motives are political and not religious. He seems to want to pick a fight with whatever country is the most powerful at the time. In the 1980’s he fought the Soviets, now he’s fighting us. I think he believes in that whole dying for Islam thing as much as Bill Clinton or Rudy Guiliani believe in the sanctity of marriage.
Rob:
You bring something to this that many do not see:
Bin Laden is motivated by POLITICS but uses RELIGION as the age-old crutch to base his distaste for those in power.
It’s the tried and true method of obfuscation when logic and common sense do not hold sway.
Good observation!
B.G.