And Finally… Animal Magic

Richard Maslen March 31, 2011

Today’s issue of The HUB is dated April 1, a day more commonly known in the western world as April Fools’ Day. It is widely recognised and celebrated as a day which tolerates practical jokes and general foolishness and is marked by the commission of good humoured or funny hoaxes, and other practical jokes of varying sophistication. In fact most newspapers and television stations produce stories, one of the most famous being Dutch television claiming that the Tower of Pisa had collapsed in 1950s. But, can you always tell reality from fiction. Below are six animal-themed aviation stories, but are they really true or simply April Fools’ jokes, scroll to the bottom of the page to find out!

GREEN CATERPILLARS FORCE DOWN AIRCRAFT IN BRISBANE

An aircraft was forced to make an emergency landing at Brisbane Airport in Australia, after green caterpillars had got into the aircraft's pressure-sensitive instruments. According to an official report lodged with the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), the government’s investigation body, the Dornier Do 228 experienced issues with the co-pilot's altimeter and vertical speed indicator after taking off from Brisbane in Queensland on January 27. The aircraft was about 28.5 miles (46km) from the airport when it suffered the problem and made an immediate return, landing without incident or any injuries to the passengers on board. “An engineering inspection revealed several green caterpillars in the pitot system,” says the official ATSB report.

MICE SNIFF OUT EXPLOSIVES IN ISRAEL

Security at airports in Israel has always been particularly strong and a number of innovations that we now see at airports across the world were first devised there. Now, two Israeli brothers have created a bomb-detecting device using mice to sniff out people carrying explosives. They claim that the trained rodents are better at discovering would-be terrorists than a full-body scanner and pat-down searches. The device consists of three cartridges, each of which contains eight mice, who each work four-hour shifts. When the animals smell traces of eight key explosives, they trigger an alarm by running into a side chamber. Mice have 364 more olfactory receptor genes than canines, giving them an even more heightened sense of smell than the conventional sniffer dogs. During a test run the mice allegedly identified 22 people who were carrying mock explosives.

SNAKES ON A PLANE IN INDONESIA

Indonesian airport authorities say they have detained two men who attempted to carry 40 pythons on board an Emirates Airline flight to Dubai. The two Kuwaiti passengers were stopped as they passed through security from landside to the sterile airside area at Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport when a member of staff discovered that there hand baggage was filled with sedated snakes. The men reportedly told investigators they planned to sell the pythons to collectors in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) but could now face up to seven years in jail and a fine of $32,000. This is not an isolated occurrence and custom officials in Asia and the Middle East regularly seize contraband. In December, police at Abu Dhabi stopped a passenger who had already travelled from Indonesia with a box containing four snakes, two parrots and a squirrel.

COYOTE DELAYS TRAFFIC AT WORLD’S BUSIEST AIRPORT

A coyote forced the temporary closure of one of the runways at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport after it strayed into an operational area. The inquisitive marsupial, also known as the American jackal or the prairie wolf, was spotted on the south side of the airport site by a member of ground staff. The animal, a species prevalent in North and Central America, was then “chased into a ravine” by an airport vehicle, according to a spokeswoman from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and normal operations resumed after just five minutes. Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International was recently ranked again as the world’s busiest airport, handling almost 90 million passengers and over 950,000 aircraft movements in 2010.

LOW-COST AIRLINE NAMES BOEING JET AFTER AIRPORT CAT

UK low-cost carrier bmibaby is to name a Boeing 737 after a stray cat at Manchester Airport, following a competition on its social media channels. The loveable feline, named Olly by airport staff, received a whopping 54 per cent of the vote beating 838 other name suggestions. One of bmibaby’s 737 aircraft will now be christened ‘Olly Cat, baby!’ with the feline featuring on the design. “I am delighted that Olly Cat, baby! was voted for by the public and is the winner of bmibaby’s Name that Plane! competition. I work at Manchester Airport and often see Olly strolling around, so it seemed perfect to name an aircraft after Manchester’s most famous cat,” said Tracy Williamson, from Wilmslow, who originally nominated Olly. “The competition was an innovative idea from bmibaby, I never thought I would get the chance to name an aircraft. While Olly may be oblivious to the fun, I’ll enjoy being one of the first onboard the aircraft named in her honour.”

PROOF THAT PENGUINS CAN FLY

We have all been brought up with the knowledge that penguins are a flight-less species. However, it appears that one adventurous Penguin has taken matters into its own hands and taken advantage of Southwest Airlines’ low-fares in the US to fly between San Francisco to San Diego. Dubbed Pete, the penguin was filmed marching down the aisle of one of the airline’s Boeing 737s andhas become an instant Internet hit. He was one of a group returning home to San Diego's SeaWorld following a trip to a science convention in San Francisco, and was allowed to roam the cabin on the journey home.

Sometimes the truth can be stranger than fiction…and that is exactly the case with all of these stories, which are in fact all completely true.

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