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Woman snagged at airport for packing banana plants in her underwear
I suppose if you're flying domestically in the U.S. and had three banana plants in your underwear while going through a security check, particularly if you're female, you'd attract attention. But, after discovering you were packing banana plants and not a pistol, you might be allowed to walk on your merry way.
Although, just how well one could walk is another issue. Seriously, if you had three banana plants in your underwear, could you walk?
In the airport in Sydney, Australia, according to this story published in the Sydney Morning Herald, if you have even one banana plant in your underwear, you'd be in a whole mess of trouble. A whole world of trouble. More trouble than you probably ever imagined.
You'd be in trouble even if the plant was not in your underwear but tucked under your arm like a rolled up newspaper--Or if you were wearing it like a hat.
It's illegal to bring banana plants into Australia no matter how you are carrying them. Banana plants carry nasty ailments that sound as if they could be sexually transmitted diseases.
"Better not, I have black sigatoka disease," one might say. Or how about "fusarium wilt?"-- or "moko disease?"
The woman apprehended by customs officials at the airport in Australia was trying to smuggle the plants in from Samoa. Although she doesn't have any funky sounding diseases, she could be looking at 10 years in jail and a $66,000 Australian dollar fine for threating Australia's banana industry.
Filed under: Food and Drink, Stories, Australia, Airports, News
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
nzm Oct 25th 2008 5:30PM
As island countries, Australia and New Zealand have very strict regulations about what's allowed and what's not, and certainly plants of any kind are not permitted unless they have been sprayed or quarantined.
Don't even think about bringing in the apple that you brought onto the plane and forgot to eat - that will bring you an instant $200 fine. The sniffer dogs in the airports are trained to hunt for illegal food items more than they are for narcotics!
As a NZer who has travelled to Europe on many occasions, I'm still amazed at what's allowed through as I'm so used to entering NZ and Oz and having no food and plant items in my luggage.
Jamie Rhein Oct 25th 2008 5:32PM
That's one expensive apple!
Thanks for the added info.
Gandalf Oct 28th 2008 9:36AM
Its a hilarious & great story!,
but it has a serious background.
So not only was she not happy to see you...
The one dominant banana in the world is the Cavendish. The "Top Banana" as it were. And the varieties have been seriously diminished.
There has been a blight affecting Cavendish bananas for almost a decade & seriously threatening the world crop making the plants sterile. And it takes along time for a plant to be ready to bear fruit.
Gandalf Oct 28th 2008 1:46PM
Recall that exotic dancers traveling to Hawaii,
have to register their snake!