Most sensible people would realise that packing chemicals into your flight bag or luggage wouldn’t be the smartest thing to do if you were heading off on a flight somewhere.
But that is exactly what one man – a lecturer – did when he intended to catch a flight from Manchester Airport to Amsterdam at the end of September.
According to reports the chemical was ethylamine. There seems to be some confusion over whether this can be carried in your luggage or not. The general consensus online was that you could carry it in your luggage provided it was packed properly and safely, and you told check in staff that it was there prior to flying. But the BBC website reported a source at the CAA – the Civil Aviation Authority – as saying it could not be carried under any circumstances.
Whichever statement proves to be true, the fact remains that the bottles the chemical was contained in were leaking. Since ethylamine has a strong smell and is corrosive in nature, baggage handlers who were about to put the bag on the plane raised the alarm.
This led to a series of events which involved various fire fighters and police officers. The owner of the bag was located and arrested, and while it seems that the event was ‘innocent’ in nature, it has still sparked alarm. Everyone at the airport acted just as they should have done, and the bag did not make it onto the flight. But the thought of what could have happened is enough to worry everyone, quite understandably so.
The obvious thought in some people’s minds – which must have included the police initially – was that this could have been a potential terrorist incident. But it soon transpired that the man was a lecturer who had simply made a very grave mistake. He hadn’t told airport staff the chemical was in his luggage, and it clearly had not been packed properly either.
He was arrested and has subsequently been released on police bail. But it does highlight the fact that you should always check what is and isn’t allowed in your luggage before you travel to the airport. Most of us wouldn’t even have access to such a chemical, let alone feel the need to take it with us. But other items are also prohibited which may seem more innocent.
It’s good to know the systems are in place at Manchester Airport to deal with events like this quickly, efficiently and properly. But if that man had taken the responsible steps of checking whether it was allowed and alerting staff to what he had before checking his luggage in, none of it would have happened.
It remains to be seen whether he will have to pay in any sense for what he has done. The arrest was made as a result of his ‘endangering an aircraft’, but what the final outcome will be is still to be decided. Needless to say he won’t make a mistake like that again.