It’s pouring tarantulas and cows at airports

It might not be very unusual for some air passengers to filch in-flight cutlery as a souvenir. But it’s definitely weird when you try to check-in with the same stolen booty in another flight of the same airline.

It might not be very unusual for some air passengers to filch in-flight cutlery as a souvenir. But it’s definitely weird when you try to check-in with the same stolen booty in another flight of the same airline.

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Recently, a passenger of a Virgin Atlantic flight tried to check-in with a bag of cutlery at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport, previously stolen from the airline. And this is perhaps the least strange incident of the things passengers attempt to check-in with.

From a bath tub, sand to a dead cow, from seawater, car engines to giant spiders—a recent survey of the Virgin Atlantic check in staff at our airports worldwide has revealed that passengers try to check in for a flight with the weirdest items one can imagine. The survey was carried out by the airline at 32 destinations connected by Virgin Atlantic.

“The survey revealed incidents such as the lady who had her family carry her bath tub through the airport at JFK Airport (New York) expecting the item to be checked in.

It wasn’t even wrapped or packaged. She just turned up with it at the check-in desk,” said an airline spokesperson.

At the same airport, the airline staff had to witness

the strange sight of a pet tarantula hidden in a ladies’ coat and a dead cow wrapped in plastic. Other strange items include a giant wheel of cheese and a car engine, the survey revealed.

“Virgin Atlantic check-in staff sees thousands of passengers on a daily basis. But every now and then, a passenger will arrive at check-in with something you would never expect. It certainly brightens up their day,” said Greg Dawson, Director of Corporate Communications, Virgin Atlantic.

Apart from souvenirs from the flight, passengers also want to take home strange mementos from vacations they loved.

“A couple who fell in love on the island of Grenada decided to try and check-in a bag full of sand and seawater as a

memory from the island they met and fell in love on,” the spokesperson said. “Another passenger brought with him a bag of soil and coconut trees at the same airport,” he added.