Weird check-ins: Indians fly with brooms, Nigerians tyres

MUMBAI: Open a check-in bag and the kind of items inside and the way they are packed in reveal some clues about the personality of the passenger. But every once in a while, airport security personnel come across passengers with emotional baggage, i.e., those with a car bumper or a bath tub or bag filled with live fish.
UK-based airline Virgin Atlantic carried out a study of the strange items their check-in staff have come across carried by passengers across the 30 destinations worldwide that they fly to. Among them was a head board of a bed which a passenger of a Delhi-London flight had packed into the check-in bag. "The findings featured a strong variety of animals, ranging from fish and a budgie on a customer's shoulder along with several car parts including an engine. There also seems to be regional patterns, with brooms arriving at check-in regularly in India and loose tyres common place in Lagos (Nigeria),'' said the study.
The other items that the airline's staff came across include a car bumper which a passenger boarding from London Heathrow wanted to carry along and then there was a passenger with a bag filled with water with four live goldfish, trying to travel from Barbados.
One passenger had a large fridge freezer in the check-in bag and sure enough, he had checked in from Las Vegas. Ant then there was a bath tub, which a passenger on board a London-Johannesburg flight had to carry along.
Virgin Atlantic's Nick Park, head of Middle East, Africa and India said: "To ensure our customers have the smoothest journey possible, it's always best to visit our website to check what is allowed on-board." So if you're emotionally attached to some object and can't go on your trip without it, you should take time out and read the rules and regulations.