BOARDING PUSS
Passenger tries to bring ‘comfort cat’ on flight
A PASSENGER was booted off a flight after she tried to smuggle her cat on board.
The American traveller, who had stowed the moggie in her hand luggage, claimed she needed it for “emotional support”.
But the BA crew on the flight from Glasgow to Heathrow were having none of it and told her to leave.
The cat was in a box in the woman’s bag. She was only BY STEPHEN STEWART s.stewart@dailyrecord.co.uk caught out because she was sitting in an emergency exit and was told the bag had to be put in an overhead locker.
The passenger appeared to leave the airport without booking an alternative flight.
An airport insider said: “BA don’t allow cats in the cabin. Security say the scanner would not have picked up the cat as being alive, dead or stuffed.”
Emotional support and service animals can fly free on planes.
But some passengers seem to be testing the limits of credibility.
This month, a flier tried to bring her “emotional support” squirrel on to a plane in Orlando. And in January, a passenger in New York attempted to take his peacock on board.
A BA spokeswoman said: “Cats cannot travel in the cabin but recognised assistance dogs travel free alongside their owners.
“Other animals need to travel in the hold.”