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Smelly fruit grounds plane
16/01/2003 08:28 - (SA)
Sydney - An infamously smelly fruit in the cargo hold of an Australian airliner forced a full-scale security alert and evacuation of the plane Thursday as baggage handlers feared they faced a possible terrorist threat.
The Virgin Blue flight from Brisbane to Adelaide was delayed for four hours while police and firefighters investigated a suspicious smell and white powder found in the cargo area, officials said.
The powder turned out to be carpet deodoriser a passenger had sprayed on a package containing the notoriously smelly Southeast Asian fruit, durian, apparently in a failed bid to disguise the odour, officials said.
"They were loading the plane up to fly interstate when the crew smelled a gas-type smell and they found a powder," said Tom James of the fire service.
"They took proper precautions and called us, so we are now handling the situation."
The chief executive of Virgin Blue, Brett Godfrey, was later forced to defend his staff from charges they overreacted in the climate of terrorism fears.
"I don't think in this climate we can be overzealous," he said.
"Serious airlines take safety seriously and we'd like to think we're a very serious airline, so we don't take any chances in this particular climate we're in."
However Godfrey said the smell of the fruit alone was enough to keep the plane grounded.
"This wasn't a safety issue, this was a gross issue - no one wants to fly in an airplane that smells like that," Godfrey said.
"I actually walked out onto the tarmac and I could smell it from 50 feet away, it's not pretty."
The incident came as authorities were under criticism for jailing a 22-year-old British tourist for making a drunken remark to a friend about hijacking aboard a New Year's Day domestic flight.
An appeals court eventually freed the tourist, Thomas Lilico, on Wednesday after he spent two weeks in jail.
Australia has been on a nationwide terrorism alert since November, when the government said it had "credible" information the country could be targetted by Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda group. - Sapa-AFP
- SAPA
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South Africa
