Travel stories -2006

[Kip Powick]

The most outrageous travel stories of 2006

In a year when yogurt and lip gloss were declared security risks and snakes on planes slithered into the national consciousness, what's left to raise a jaded traveler's eyebrows? Among the year's offbeat travel tales:

Where's a python when you really need one?

Snakes weren't the only critters on planes this year. An Austrian Airlines jet made an unscheduled landing in September after a passenger sneaked a hamster aboard and the rodent escaped.

The flight from Palma de Mallorca, Spain, to the Austrian city of Graz made a stop in Innsbruck so officials could search for the hamster and make sure it didn't gnaw through any wiring, the Associated Press reported.

In Kansas City, meanwhile, an American Airlines whistle-blower shot a hidden video in May that revealed mice cavorting through an American Boeing 767. "We had to take the chairs off, and that's when everybody saw mice running around on the floor, and one ran down one of the mechanics' arm," the whistle-blower told Kansas City's NBC Action News team.

'Tailwind' downs jetliner

A Dallas-bound American Airlines jet made an emergency landing in Nashville earlier this month when a gassy passenger tried to mask her flatulence by burning matches — and failed to fess up. "Of course, she was scared and embarrassed," an airport spokeswoman told Reuters. "But all the passengers had to disembark, all the luggage had to be searched, a canine team was brought in, and about three hours were consumed in sorting out the situation." The plane finally took off for its original destination without the culprit, who wasn't charged for making a stink.

Very excess baggage

Contenders for the category of the year's most bizarre suitcase story have to include the Chicago man who was so desperate to keep his mother from knowing he'd packed a sexual aid for their August trip to Turkey, he allegedly told airport screeners that the grenade-shaped item in his luggage was a bomb.

Then there was the 21-year-old Pennsylvania student who was arrested at Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport on Aug. 25 when inspectors found bomb-making components in his checked luggage. His alibi: He'd been exploring mines in Bolivia and purchased the dynamite as a souvenir.

But it's hard to top the Haitian woman who was charged with smuggling a human skull — complete with hair, skin and teeth — through Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in February. She told authorities she intended to use it as part of her voodoo beliefs. She was fined $1,000 and pleaded guilty in April to a misdemeanor charge of improper storage of human remains.

Screener saw right through this

Shoes? Check. Car keys? Check. Baby? Whoops!

An unidentified 56-year-old woman bound for Mexico City placed her month-old grandson in a plastic bin and slid him through an X-ray machine at Los Angeles International Airport earlier this month, but an eagle-eyed screener noticed the distinctive outline and yanked the bin away. The infant was taken to a nearby hospital, where doctors determined that his radiation exposure — less than what a passenger on a cross-country flight would receive — wasn't dangerous, the Los Angeles Times reported. "We're trying to figure out what changes we can make, short of putting up signs saying, 'Don't put your baby through the X-ray machine,' " a TSA spokesman told the paper.

Moove slowly, and no hugging

Responding to increased reports of "unpleasant meetings between hikers and cattle" along Switzerland's Alpine trails this summer, the Swiss Hiking Federation issued tips for clueless tourists. "Do not scare the animals or look them directly in the eye. Do not wave sticks. Give a precise blow to the muzzle of the cow in the event of absolute need," the federation warned. And above all: "Never caress a calf."

New (to him, anyway) England

Jim Hourihan of Liverpool, England, thought he was heading home when he boarded a Continental Airlines flight in Los Angeles in June. Alas, it wasn't until he changed to a 50-seat regional jet in Cleveland that Hourihan realized he was bound for Manchester, N.H., not Manchester, England. After an overnight stay, he was rebooked through Newark at no extra charge. His opinion of the Yankee Manchester: Nice, he told the Associated Press, but it could use a few more pubs.

And speaking of pubs, the pilot of a Ryanair flight that took off from Liverpool on March 30 but arrived at the wrong airport in Northern Ireland might have felt the need for a pint or two. The plane was supposed to land in Derry, but wound up at a British military base several miles away. Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary told reporters the obvious: "The pilot seems to have made a stupid mistake."

Crime watch in Naples

Only a week after launching this summer's scheme to foil pickpockets in crime-plagued Naples, Italy, by giving visitors free plastic watches adorned with a city logo, police chief Oscar Fioriolli claimed to be clocking results: "Watch snatchers seem to have got the message that it's no longer worthwhile going for things on people's wrists," he told U.K.-based Italy Magazine.

Now who's being naughty?

A one-day dream trip to meet Santa Claus headed south after a flight to Lapland was canceled at the last minute. Police were called to Wales' Cardiff International Airport earlier this month when parents — furious because they'd checked in at 5 a.m. and weren't told of the flight's cancellation until after 9 a.m. — started shouting abuse at staff.

In Hong Kong, meanwhile, irate families stormed fences at Hong Kong Disneyland and threw their children over gates after the newly opened theme park sold out for an eighth consecutive day last February.

Here's an incentive for laying off the bratwurst: Since March, the three-star Hotel Ostfriesland in Norden, Germany, has been charging guests half a euro for every kilo they weigh per overnight stay (about 65 cents per 2.2 pounds). Owner Juergen Heckrodt told Reuters, "I had many guests who were really huge, and I told them to slim down. When they came back the year after and had lost a lot of weight, they asked me, 'What are you going to do for me now?' " The zaftig needn't worry: The hotel charges a maximum of $51 for a single room or $97 for a double.

Inhale this, fresh-air freaks!

While one German entrepreneur was promoting good health in 2006, another was blowing smoke rings at the concept. Düsseldorf-based Alexander Schoppmann announced plans to launch Smoker's International Airways (Smintair) next fall, promising caviar, designer-clad flight attendants — and ashtrays at every seat.

When pigs fly, duck!

A 20-year-old man was fined $279 for what a perplexed cop said "must be some redneck thing" — tossing a 60-pound pig over a counter at the Holiday Inn Express in West Point, Miss. No one was hurt in last month's incident, including the porker.

Dreadfully sorry, old chap

In January, a careless museum visitor in Cambridge, England, tripped on a loose shoelace, tumbled down a stairway and crashed into a display of centuries-old Chinese vases, shattering all three to smithereens. Fitzwilliam Museum director Duncan Robinson took the high road, vowing to repair the Qing dynasty artifacts and even expressing sympathy for the klutz in question: "It was a most unfortunate and regrettable accident," he told the Associated Press, "but we are glad that the visitor involved was able to leave the museum unharmed."