Posted on 10/21/2010 7:29:19 PM PDT by nickcarraway
A crocodile stashed in a duffel bag got loose on an airplane, frightened passengers and led to a crash that killed 20 people on board, according to an inquiry into the accident.
The lone survivor of the crash in the Democratic Republic of Congo told the story to investigators, the U.K.’s Telegraph reported on Thursday. A British pilot was among the dead.
The plane was on a routine domestic flight from the capital of Kinshasa to a regional airport in Bandundu when the bizarre tale unfolded on Aug. 25. An unnamed passenger had hidden the crocodile in a large duffel bag with the intent of selling the reptile, according to the Telegraph. The animal escaped as the plane approached its destination. Pandemonium ensued.
"The terrified air hostess hurried towards the cockpit, followed by the passengers," a report obtained by the Telegraph said. The plane then became unstable, "despite the desperate efforts of the pilot."
The plane crashed into a home a few hundred feet from the airport, though the people who lived in the residence were not in the house.
The crocodile reportedly survived the crash but was killed by a blow from a machete.
The aircraft belonged to Filair, a private carrier, and was a Czech-made Let L-410 twin turboprop.
At the time of the crash, media reports said the plane apparently ran out of fuel and couldn’t make a proper landing.
Congo’s domestic air service consists mainly of badly maintained Soviet-era aircraft with a dismal safety history, according to media reports. Air crashes are common in the Central African country.
Crocodiles On A Plane?
ha!!! ditto
Oh like 35 years ago my brother was a fly around mechanic on a DC-8 for the charter airline Capitol Airlines, and he would tell me story’s about 3rd world people stashing kids into the duffel bins and trying to start build their cooking fires on the floor of the cabin, so this is not surprising to me.
Professor Twist could not but smile...
This is *precisely* why crocs should never be allowed to pilot a plane.
‘At the time of the crash, media reports said the plane apparently ran out of fuel and couldn’t make a proper landing.’
So...how did the croc make the plane run out of fuel?
Crocodiles drink plane fuel.
Brilliant!
Travelling around the Yucatan in late 70s on bus, nothing for long time & then at some path out of the jungle would be a few people waiting for the bus. You got on with whatever you, the driver and maybe a helpful passenger could load. Crops on the top or live chickens, or box of peepers on a little gir’s lap. The most interesting was a group of hunters with 2 deer carcasses, guns and dogs. The driver made them put their dogs in the side comparments (which dogs never stopped barking). They brought the guns and the carcasses inside the bus and threw them up on the luggage racks. The bus driver was all upset. Down the road we stopped at a store, the driver got off & came back with a newspaper. He barked some orders at the hunters and they all arranged the dead deer with the newspapers under the bloody bodies. Everybody was satisfied.
In about 1981, a Pakistan International Airways 747 was on its way from Karachi to Jeddah, carrying a planeload of pilgrims on their way to Mecca. One of the Paki passengers was right out of the hills, and when the flight attendants were busy elsewhere, this dufus fired up his portable stove to brew tea. Not surprisingly, a firestorm ensued. The pilots sat the plane down at Riyadh, but by that time the heat inside the craft was so intense that the the doors were welded to the frames and were impossible to open. The firefighters on the ground could only stand around and watch all the pax burn up. All aboard perished. The carcass of the 747 was left on the tarmac for some time.
Those stupid Soviets didn't design their planes for loose crocodiles? /s lol
strange air disaster ping
Wow, couldn’t Monty Python have a ball with this!
PS. Does this count as a Darwin Award?
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