Strangest checkin luggage?

[marki]

I was going through security a few weeks ago at Sydney international and there was bloke who was trying to get a cordless drill and stanley knife through security, it was one of the dumbest things I've ever seen at an airport, and he then argued the point that he needed them for work.

I did it once from LHR to Melbourne with a black and decker drill before 2008, (carry on) managed with some very curious questioning! No stanley knife of course.:shock:

 

[JetStarSux]

On an Air Mali flight between RBA and BKO a fellow passenger boarded with a Lavatory Bowl in her hand luggage. The cabin crew did not bat an eyelid and stowed it in the closet

 

[JessicaTam]

On an Air Mali flight between RBA and BKO a fellow passenger boarded with a Lavatory Bowl in her hand luggage. The cabin crew did not bat an eyelid and stowed it in the closet

The water closet, by chance?

 

[love_the_life]

I was in China a few years back when the woman in front of me boarded with a used plastic bucket (as in the kind you use for horse feed) without the lid with half a dozen mandarins rolling around in it. She somehow managed to stow it in the overhead locker. In the checkin queue for the same flight there seemed to be an awful lot of people with crates/boxes with air holes and possibly something alive inside. That flight was particularly memorable as we flew straight through the middle of a snow storm. My mind was thinking of the news reports - plane goes down in China, Australians confirmed on plane etc etc. A few Hail Mary's went down that trip!

The funniest thing I know about is my brother who now lives in Ireland. Whenever he comes out he gathers up things he can't get over there (well his preferred brands and types). Last time he took back a cardboard carton of goods, wrapped in black plastic and tied up with string. Inside there were such treasures as a garden hose, a metal tap, dog vitamins (for the greyhounds), sundry sets of long johns and thermals, Yakka work clothes etc. Can just imagine the X ray of that luggage!

 

[gazzax2]

Some of the stories on this thread are ridiculous what people check in!


I ferried a $5000 Aboriginal Art work (painting) for my aunt from Perth to Brisbane on VA. It was massive I'm about 6 feet tall and when it was rolled up it was in a round mailing tube that was about 30cm taller than me. Quite heavy too.

I am a VA Gold Member and I checked it in and they didn't even ask any questions.

 

[Cynicor]

My Avalanche airbags get a few questions, but it is airport dependant. I'm not sure if the X-ray luggage that transits airports but it was absolutely simple at CTS (Sapporo) where they must see a few and PER wasn't too bad either, but they'd never seen one before.

NRT wanted to have a look at the contraption purely out of curiosity.

Some random security lady at ITM (local Osaka) decided that the canister couldn't fly but I'd had about 6 airlines and many airports worth of proof by that stage and just sat there arguing and asking for a manager until she got the ANA staff. They had a case conference for around 45 min but after I showed it all to them they were fine, and hopefully better educated. Probably helps that I had somewhere near 10 different pages of documentation and emails from airlines.

Worst part was that they wouldn't have even noticed the explosives except I'd pointed them out, they were only concerned about the tiny N2 tank!

 

[Musongman]

At Bangkok Suvarnabhumi check -in area you are likely to see dozens, if not hundreds of flat panel TV's, being checked in at the "oversized luggage" area, mostly by Indians. However I did see a QF crew member lodge one!
The last two times I went to BKK I had a box fan in my checked in baggage and an electric skillet in my hand luggage. This year it will be just a sandwich maker that was so cheap at Big W, I had to take it with me, in my checked bag!!

 

[aaspro]

Strangest thing I have seen is a suitcase full of pineapples on a flight fromPhuket to Moscow.

Strangest thing I have packed is a 1960's coughtail trolley bought in antique shop in Buenos Aires which I wrapped in bubble wrap and managed to get home to Brisbane in one piece.

 

[Archipelago]

I've carried and checked in a few weird items in my travels..

As a pearl farmer, on occasion I had to carry entire harvests of pearls, always hand carry - first few times I was as nervous as hell [especially on international trips]

And in my early days in the islands in Myanmar, I caught by hand a large painted crayfish and was rather chuffed about it. As I was building my first home back in Oz, I decided to get it taxidermed [??]. As we had a relationship with the Burmese Ministry of Fisheries, my staff got in touch with them and they had a guy who offered to get it prepared. I had a nice teak and glass box made for it in the meantime.
When I arrived to Yangon with the critter, I was surprised to find a large contingent of the Fisheries guys and some local press - they duly measured and weighed it and later informed me it was the largest one recorded in the country. This isn't a big thing really - any fishermen in Asia tend to catch and sell everything no matter what the size so I doubt any had bothered to get them recorded by scientists previously.

Something lacking in this thread is pics..so I have managed to dig out an old scan of the beast the day I collected it in Yangon shortly before I flew back to Perth with it



Incoming customs at Perth was interesting and another story...

 

[TripleB]

In late 2014 and early 2015 I was in the process of slowly moving from Darwin to Sydney - on my weekly Friday night QF redeye I checked in all manner of things - framed paintings (albeit in a bicycle box), a desk, a dining table, 5 dining chairs. All were wrapped in odd boxes and packing tape. Never had any trouble (but plenty of strange looks).

I had to laugh when the checkin agent said to me one Friday night 'there's a run on chairs obviously - some bloke checked in a chair last week' to which I responded 'ohhh no that was probably me'.

My crowing achievement was picking the desk up off the belt in Sydney (it was at least 6ft long), carrying it down to the train station, getting off at Wynyard, walking to the bus stop on York St and then negotiating with the bus driver to let me take it on the 610 bus down the M2.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

slightly OT but I once took a (new) toilet seat in my backup as carry on - the look on the security guard's face was priceless!

bdl

Few well-heeled backpackers would be without one!

Returning from PNG in 2009, what else could you buy for gifts to bring home but 75cm jungle knives, a stack of them. I declared them at customs at Cairns airport and the bloke didn't even bat an eyelid. He obviously was used to seeing them come in from POM.

Yes they are popular. I often have friends bring them back a souvenir bush knife or two. I was clearing some grass at home the other day for our new deck and I though to myself "I wish I had a bush knife right now"!

As for me, I've brought back a traditional PNG spear and bow (no arrows) and various artefacts including a mask, a great painting, a crocodile and an elephant (of the carved variety).



I've also flown with a largish flat screen (took up a whole full size suitcase), pedestal fan, Aldi coffee machine, floor rug etc. I also recall being bailed up by the drug dog on my way back from Vanuatu.....(had one of those grass hats that my daughter made in a kids club there). I also regularly travel with cans of Bositos eucalyptus spray, which being a personal antibacterial spray is permitted. Apart from that, nothing too extraordinary.

 

[prozac]

Not so strange I suppose and not checked, but 2015 I was left a lovely old piano accordion by my late aunt, a gift to her in around 1945 by my father. No way it was coming home from AMS-SYD as checked luggage.

I managed to pack my cabin bag into my normal (expanded) luggage and carried on just the accordion as hand luggage along with a "handbag" as per Lufthansa carry rules. The handbag was a shoulder bag large enough for my laptop so I was not pushing the envelope. The funny thing was the number of questions from and ensuing conversations with women on the way to and from the A/C at AMS, FRA and SIN. Better attention grabber than a puppy. At SYD customs were less interested in what I had in my suitcase than what brand accordion I had.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

a lovely old piano accordion ....I managed to pack my cabin bag into my normal (expanded) luggage and carried on just the accordion as hand luggage along with a "handbag" as per Lufthansa carry rules.

Were you wearing Bavarian shorts? Sort of reminds me of the Griswalds European Vacation!

 

[ozimax]

Were you wearing Bavarian shorts? Sort of reminds me of the Griswalds European Vacation!

And clogs?

 

[prozac]

Were you wearing Bavarian shorts? Sort of reminds me of the Griswalds European Vacation!

I was travelling during the traditional Oktoberfest period (3rd Saturday in September - 1st Sunday October). When I was walking through FRA airport there was a promotional Oktoberfest band playing, ja, in ihren Lederhosen! Seeing the accordion I was carrying they called me over to join them. Seriously, they were excited. I had to make a lame excuse I was rushing for my connection. I have only just started to learn how to play now I am the owner of one. At that stage I didn't even know how to wear it. lol.

Terrible news. I parked the car in a bad part of the city with the accordion in full view on the back seat. Unfortunately I forgot to lock the car and when I came back there was two of them.

 

[prozac]

And clogs?

I happily wear clogs...comfy when you get used to them. No, I am not that weird I wear them in Oz. Sadly not many real clog makers left. A dying art.

 

[medhead]

Perhaps unusual rather than strange. But I've hand carried the target from a linear accelerator and some (no longer radioactive) wire that was used for cancer treatment. I wanted to do some spectroscopic analysis to see if there was anything radioactive left in them.

One X-ray scanning person asked what the target was. They were happy when I said it was part of an x-ray machine, which is kind of true- relatively speaking.

 

[Awesom Andy]

Taking a close look at the carousel for any flight arriving in SIN from Australia and chances there are one or two eskies or cooler bags full of meat, cheese and/or small goods. We routinely bring back meat and cheese to Singapore from Australia, and many others do too (including SIN based cabin crew!). Although not really ideal for connecting flights, if you're on a non-stop very easy to keep things cool in the cargo hold ...

Thought I would add more colours to this... 5kg of meat per person (from specific countries) is allowed into SIN, and with good quality meat easily going past $100 per kg at the shops, most SIN residents would do well to bring some meat in. Seafood is also allowed, including live oysters, although I'm not sure how well they would survive the trip.

And interestingly, up to 30 hen eggs are also allowed per pax, but I don't know if anyone would really want to try this in their luggage - checked-in or hand carry.

 

[prozac]

Perhaps unusual rather than strange. But I've hand carried a target from a linear accelerator and some (no longer radioactive) wire that was used for cancer treatment. I wanted to do some spectroscopic analysis to see if there was anything radioactive left in them.

One X-ray scanning person asked what the target was. They were happy when I said it was part of an x-ray machine.

Would the wire show up anything unusual in the x-ray machine?

 

[ozimax]

I happily wear clogs...comfy when you get used to them. No, I am not that weird I wear them in Oz. Sadly not many real clog makers left. A dying art.

You can buy them here from the Hartsuyker's Clog Barn in Ciffs Harbour.