At Stockholm airport, a mouse grounded an SAS Airbus 330 bound for Chicago. The little animal was seen scurrying across the cabin floor just before boarding. Despite an extensive search and numerous mousetraps the creature managed to escape capital punishment. The airline cancelled the flight. It said that as well as unsettling passengers the mouse posed a safety risk as it could chew the aircraft's cables.Passengers had to be rebooked and suffered delays of over five hours, enough to claim Sturgeon compensation. The interesting point is whether the airline can argue that the mouse created an ‘extraordinary circumstance’. You may want to find the answer with the guidance in Air Passenger Rights, p. 50-51.
Can you take living animals on board (Air Passenger Rights, p. 64)? In Russia, an official at Blagoveshchensk airport took a hive of bees on to a plane. They were stashed in a box and put in a coat locker in business class. The bees were apparently not happy with this arrangement and midflight they decided to break out and make their way through the cabin, frightening and shocking passengers. After a while, the crew managed to tape up the cloakroom doors to stop the bees flying out. The other bees were merciless killed by frightened passengers (apologies to the bees for any inconvenience caused).Carrying insects aboard a plane is banned under Russian (and other national) aviation rules. In this case, the airport’s deputy director had carried the bees on the plane by simply skipping security checks. It was not the first time security failed at that airport. In June 2011, a woman was caught after managing to board a plane without a ticket, documents or any luggage. So if you are fed up with all the airport security measures, you know which airport to fly from.
French celebrity Gérard Depardieu, 62 was caught peeing in a CityJet plane (a witness said she saw a bottle of Perrier in the actor’s other hand). The actor was refused permission to use the lavatory as the plane prepared for take-off. Because of Depardieu going peenuts the jet had to taxi back to the gate and the dépar(dieu) was delayed for a further two hours.One may wonder what caused the actor to behave in such an incontinental way. My guess: the liquid rules. Before going through security, Depardieu realised he had a full bottle of Perrier water in his hand luggage. And rather than throwing it away he decided to down it. Such irresponsible behaviour is encouraged by the mismatch between the heavy regulation of liquids in hand luggage and the complete lack of regulation of liquids carried inside the human body (Air Passenger Rights, p. 79).
This mismatch leads to regrettable scenes of passengers no longer able to control their jet stream. I contacted the airline authorities and they promised a robust response. They intend to introduce a new generation of body scanners at the departure gates to measure the human body’s liquid levels. As one spokesman said: ’It is the only way to stamp out this form of terrorrential peeism root and branch. And to boost the business of body scanners, of course.’
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