Airport Official Skipped Security To Bring The Insects Onto The Flight

A Russian airport official used his position to smuggle a beehive aboard a commercial flight at the airport in the Blagoveshchensk province, and stowed the insects in a coat locker in business class. Mid-flight, the bees escaped from the locker ... causing a disturbance among the passengers on the plane.

The French news service AFP reports that the incident, which occurred May 28th, was disclosed in a front-page news story in the state newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta, which accused airport security officials at Blagoveshchensk of numerous systematic failures.

Carrying insects on board an aircraft is prohibited by Russian aviation rules. But the airport's deputy director Anatoly Smimov reportedly skipped security with his contraband. Some of the passengers sitting in business class were unnamed officials from Moscow.

A spokesperson for Yakutia airline told AFP that one of the flight attendants managed to tape up the closet where the bees were stashed, preventing more from escaping. "The crew showed heroism," the spokesman said.

But nothing much may come of the incident. The transportation prosecutor at Blagoveshchensk told the Rossiiskaya Gazeta that he had investigated the incident, and had sent a letter of warning to the airport management.

FMI: www.ruaviation.com/dir/info/3/