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Alitalia flight diverts because of toxic fumes; finds minced onions
Alitalia has fallen on hard times lately. Business is down, morale is low and last week, Italy's government had to approve a takeover bid by Air France & KLM to help bail out their ailing national airline.I put forth a few possible causes for their demise in an article last week, but perhaps I was being too generous. Perhaps, rather, it's because they're idiots.
Case in point: earlier last week, an Alitalia cargo flight en route from Milan to Miami suddenly diverted to Boston's Logan airport. The crew, completely outfitted in oxygen masks and reporting "toxic fumes," safely landed and turned the aircraft over safety inspectors in haz-mat mode, expecting the worst.
Indeed, cargo manifests indicated several toxic chemicals were on board. But upon closer inspection, investigators found that all of those were packaged properly and safely. The real source of the noxious fumes? Onions. Ten thousand pounds of minced onions.
It took three days to sort out the ruckus, fill out the paperwork and get the aircraft back on its way.
As for the onions, they were placed on a "No Fly List" then put on trucks bound for Florida.
What strange things have been found on planes?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Danis Mar 24th 2008 10:42PM
IDIOTS! You would THINK that ITALIANS would recognize the smell of ONIONS!!! C'mon people!
Cheryl Mar 25th 2008 1:40AM
You mean they couldn't tell the smell of chopped onions... How stupid are their employee's anyway? How couldn't someone tell that smell is beyond me. Remind me never to fly that airlines. They wouldn't be able to smell if something was really wrong is my guess.
ral Mar 25th 2008 1:46AM
Alitalia is by far the worst airline I have been had the misfortune to fly. Went to Italy this fall and they lost three people from our group's luggage, mine amongst them...and not only did it take them three days to return half of it, the last one's luggage had to be redeemed from their dead luggage room as she boarded the plane back to Chicago....but they were not able to be contacted, they were totally less than cordial about the whole thing, like we were an inconvenience to them and should just go away...
Air France is okay....part of our flight was with that carrier as they are connected...but Alitalia is not even for the birds, it is that bad!!!
dee Mar 27th 2008 7:39PM
I believe the toxic onion fumes was a perfect ruse to give the crew the opportunity to visit Boston. Just think about it, the company has been bought by Air France-KLM, and soon the Alitalia employees might not be employed. This could have been one last holiday for them. The Euro is strong here and they probably wanted to do some shopping. So Alitalia paid for hotels, food, and overtime to the crew to relax and enjoy the U.S. La Dolce Vita.