Live Frog Hops Out Of Passenger's Salad

When you eat on board a commercial flight these days, every bite is precious. A bag of peanuts is nice. A cold sandwich is the passenger's equivalent of gastronomic Valhalla. But a salad... when was the last time you saw one of those in the air?

So imagine the surprise of a Qantas passenger headed from Melbourne, Australia, to Wellington, New Zealand, when she attacked her salad, fork in hand -- and a frog jumped out of the bowl.

A 1.6-inch long whistling tree frog, to be exact.

"There was a bit of consternation by the passenger who called back the attendant," said Fergus Small of New Zealand's Ministry of Agriculture, quoted by the BBC.

Small said frogs have been known to travel in the cargo holds of aircraft down under. But this was the first time that the Ministry's quarantine service ever heard of one popping up -- or popping out -- of a salad.

A Qantas spokesman says the airline immediately changed lettuce vendors and has introduced "additional procedures into the salad supply process."

The frog? He didn't make it. He was killed by officials from the quarantine service upon landing in Wellington (We hadn't realized the penalties for stowing away aboard an aircraft in the South Pacific were quite so strict).

FMI: www.qantas.com.au