Strange, But True Airport News

This is the exact reason why I don't check my luggage.  A luggage handler at Providence, R.I.'s T.F. Green Airport was arrested last week after being accused of stealing from passengers’ checked suitcases, according to TurnTo10.com.  Nelson Pacheco, 24, an employee of Aramark Aviation Services, was charged with larceny and released on bail.  A police investigation using video surveillance was started after passenger complaints about missing items including iPods, laptops and other electronics missing from their suitcases, said the Web site.

Does Dateline NBC know about this?  The chairman of Atlanta's Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) was arrested after being caught performing sex acts in a bathroom at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, reports WMGT-TV.  Undercover police found Ed Wall, 43, in the bathroom with Michael Pettry, 25, a man he met over the Internet.  Pettry and Wall, who is married and has 3 children, were charged with public indecency, and Wall's lawyer said his client was "falsely accused."

Bye Bye -- and don't forget your magnet!  Last week's "Strange" included a story about screeners at LAX who discovered wires on the body of an Iraqi national, along with a magnet inside his rectum.  The man is now facing deportation, reports the Houston Chronicle.  The event wasn't enough to bring about criminal charges, but immigration reviewed Fadhel Al-Maliki"s, 35, case and found two violent convictions on his record, enough to have him deported, said an FBI spokesperson.

Didn't Tom Hanks star in this movie?  An Iranian woman who spent 11 months living in Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport with her two children is now safely in Canada after receiving government-sponsored immigration status, reports CBC News.  She fled Iran from jail, where she was serving time for attending a political rally.  She used fake documents to get to Canada via Russia.  After being trapped in Germany, she was sent back to Russia, where a miscommunication from an interpreter caused her UN refugee status to be rejected.  She lived in a Moscow hotel for several months under house arrest, then was released to the airport last May, where the family slept on the floor and relied on employees for food. Photo courtesy of SleepingIin Airports Web site.

Here's this week's edition of celebrities behaving badly! Black Eyed Peas lead singer Fergie was banned from boarding a Virgin Atlantic flight from Los Angeles to London last week because she was too drunk, reports Big News Network.  The singer, who has battled drug and alcohol addiction, fought with airline staff and had to be pulled away by her traveling companions, according to www.hollywood.tv.  The flight was delayed for an hour until the matter was settled.

Chucked for taking chocolate?  I love those kookolas at Qantas.  They have fired yet another flight attendant -- remember my post in "Strange" on the one sacked for canoodling with actor Ralph Fiennes?  Why, you ask?  Philip Woodward-Brown, 57, was fired for allegedly taking individually-wrapped chocolate-covered macadamia nuts, reports the Sydney Morning-Herald.  He worked for the Australian carrier for 32 years before the firing under Qantas's zero tolerance policy for theft.  He was searched by airline security after a flight to Tokyo, where they found 11 chocolates in his bag and five in his pockets, along with two individually wrapped biscuits.  The Herald says that Woodward-Brown's lawyers will say that the food were "essential tools of trade". They will say it is usual for flight attendants to carry items like chocolates, sugar sachets and coffee stirrers to hand out to passengers. Just as an office worker might take home pens or paper from their job, so Woodward-Brown inadvertently brought some items off the plane. Uh huh....

Play Misty for me?  A vapor-emitting suitcase forced the shutdown of Virginia's Norfolk International Airport for three hours last week, reports PilotOnline.com.  A baggage handler noticed the misty luggage standing alone in the claim area and called security after the owner could not be found.  The bomb squad discovered the mist had been caused by a malfunctioning aerosol can inside the bag.

That flight is taking off, but you can't get on it!  British Mediterranean Airways flies an empty aircraft between London Heathrow and Wales' Cardiff Airport just to hold onto a valuable landing slot at Heathrow, according to The Sunday Times.  No tickets are sold and all 124 passenger seats on the Airbus A320 are empty. Because there are no passengers, the “ghost” flights, which have run since October, do not appear on departure or arrival boards.  The Times reported that the flights, which have pumped hundreds of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in the past five months, threaten to undermine the aviation industry’s public stance of trying to reduce emissions.