And Sunday's Find Was Not The First

If you don't win the Powerball jackpot on Wednesday, maybe you should check under your seat on your next airline flight, particularly if you're flying Air India.

Authorities on Sunday found 6.8 pounds of gold under the seat of a plane at  Rajiv Gandhi International Airport after being tipped off about the potential smuggling. The precious metal is worth about $112,291 ... or 7.5 million rupees.

The New Indian Express reports that this is the fifth time that investigators say they have been tipped off about gold smuggling on an airplane in the past six weeks.

Investigators say the scam goes something like this. There is a hollow pipe which supports the three-abreast seats, and the end nearest the window is usually open. A smuggler would slip the small ingots into the open end of the tube, and an accomplice would board the next flight of that airplane and retrieve it.

Officials suspect that airport personnel are in on the scheme, because without the assistance of someone on the inside, "it is not possible to smuggle out anything."

But the gold is getting on the airplanes. Since December, customs officials in India have recovered 22 pounds of gold from Air India flights. And, according to the report, no arrests have been made because the gold is considered to be "abandoned".

FMI: www.cbec.gov.in/