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South African flight crews know how to get high
If you're having trouble staying awake or just like to party, book your next flight on South African Airways. The UK Border Agency arrested 15 SAA crew members – nine men and six women – at Heathrow Airport. Why are they now guests of the Queen? This crew was caught trying to slip 11 lbs of cocaine into the country. The episode is just another example of poor timing. The drugs are estimated to have a street value of ?250,000. If nose candy is pegged to the U.S. dollar, it would have been worth almost twice as much six months ago.
Last month, another 15 SAA crew members were busted at Heathrow for hauling cocaine and cannabis into England. They were a bit more ambitious, with a haul with an estimated value of ?310,000. The outcome, however, was the same. BBC News calls it a separate incident, but it smells like a pattern to me ... and my nasal passages are clean.
The most recent perps were given bail and instructed to return to court on March 23. The only question that remains is how much more cocaine they'll have to "import" to cover their legal fees.
[Via BBC News]
Only these women have caused more problems than SAA's pilots!
Filed under: Europe, United Kingdom, Airlines, News
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Mark Feb 19th 2009 6:51AM
Hey, cocaine and cigarettes..isn't that the diet of a lot of crew members for staying slim?
mookpook Feb 19th 2009 2:09PM
And my crew gets a hard time by HM Customs just for Crew Juice.
Steve Feb 19th 2009 2:21PM
This gives another meaning to "getting high on drugs"
geneo Feb 19th 2009 4:15PM
crews have been smuggling this stuff for decades and getting away with it
where is the customs people
are they paid off???
nick Feb 19th 2009 4:15PM
What can we expect, this was one of the best places to go on a trip before the whites were taken out of power, now the liberals run it and their is nothing but slime, good place to dump our liberals.
scotty Feb 19th 2009 10:47PM
apartheid was how you prefferd it nick? you sound like a bigot.
Glorious Feb 20th 2009 1:44PM
HA HA HA Nick! Good post!
samcw2000 Mar 5th 2009 4:05PM
Have you been to Johannesburg recently Nick? Doubt it. I have and had a great time there. The city has taken on a revival since stabilization. FYI... alot of middle-class americans have bought homes and started new businesses in South Africa. I was there visiting one of my friends who packed up and sold his business in NYC and started a new business in J-burg. Get out of your trailer and see the world before you start passing judgement.
Vicky Feb 19th 2009 4:16PM
Tom, did BBC write the headline for this story or did you? Either way, both BBC and yourself should stray from ridiculous generalizations--to say that "all South African flight crews know how to get high" literally implies that ALL South African flight crews get high (and the story isn't even about the SAA crew getting high!). When you generalize like this, you only fuel ignorant and racist thoughts such as those stated by nick. And nick, lest you forget, allow me to remind you that the United States was founded by the slimiest garbage out there, racist, egotistical white men. That being said, what occurs today is ultimately a product of the dominant ideology and structures white men have put into place, meaning that they themselves are responsible for ruining "one of the best places to go on a trip,” as you say—although you seem to have left out HOW that makes any sense (and yet you think you are somehow better? That’s laughable!). And for those of you who, unable to read correctly what it is I am saying, want to call me a racist, notice how I say RACIST white men. I am not generalizing all white men as racist nor am I generalizing all white men as conservative (notice how nick’s wording suggests that all people of color, specifically Africans, are liberal). Get a clue dick...I mean nick!
T. Vance Feb 19th 2009 4:47PM
Vicky,
Please take some time away from your computer and learn US History. The likes of John Adams was fighting against slavery in the 1700's when he and others were writing the Constitution. Your ignorance is showing.
Kristina Feb 19th 2009 4:16PM
We just need worldwide legalization of ALL drugs. =) Like, the government doesn't have the right to tell us what we can or cannot put in our body. Those bastards.
lippinlolly Feb 19th 2009 6:19PM
Kristina...... I take it you are a very young person with no children yet. Drugs are illegal for a reason. They fry your brain. You for example sound as though you have done many drugs. Sad, very very sad.
Kristina Feb 19th 2009 6:26PM
Yes, you're right. I'm 19, no kids. But think about it.. if the government has power to tells us what certain perceived "bad things" we cannot put into our body..it's only a matter of time until they control every aspect of our lives. And that's what they're trying to do! There are bad FOODs that give us heart attacks, but the don't ban that now do they? It's the same thing with drugs, only a negative stigma is synonymous with them. And about the "brain-frying" .. that is just something they made people believe back in the day to scare them from trying drugs. And I haven't done THAT many drugs. It's just my beliefs. :-/
Jon Feb 19th 2009 7:04PM
Kristina you really need to get out and do some reseach, and I dont mean your monthly isue of weeds. I mean look into the biological impact drugs have on your body, because saying they "fry your brain" is infact an understatment continual use of most drugs will actually shut it down... Go back to school and do the actual research about this "hobby" you have.
Kristina Feb 19th 2009 7:16PM
Jon you're an asshole. Why are you trying to be mean to me when you don't even know me? First of all, I never said I drugs are my "hobby". And you don't even know me, how do you know I didn't just try something once? I was just stating my opinion on what *I* think should be done about drugs.
Jon Feb 19th 2009 7:15PM
And just like any other uneducated drugy you imediatly jump on your emotions and verbalize them. Im not being mean by showing that there is a reason drugs are banned. Just again showing your lack of education on the topic. "asshole" Good point though you have convinced me.
creiner58 Feb 19th 2009 8:54PM
Kristina's point is well-taken if thought about logically and without the usual circular logic (Drugs are bad because they're illegal. Why are they illegal? Because they're bad.). And, yes, I'm a parent who didn't do drugs when I was a teen, but had many friends who used and sold.
I've seen alcohol do far more damage than drugs, especially in my family. But alcohol is quite legal and when it was illegal, it only served to foster the mushrooming of organized crime. I don't understand how people can smoke cigarettes. I also don't understand how such an addictive, damaging product is legal. But, it is.
In my family, alcohol has done far more damage than drugs. We've buried too many people too early, seen brilliant students soak their brains in Martell. Conversely, the most successful members of my family, some of the most respected people in their professions, all indulge in drugs. It's coincidence, but a funny coincidence, no?
Our "war on drugs" and various enforcement initiatives haven't cramped supply or drug dealer illegal profits. Maybe it's time we decriminalized certain drugs (cuts the black market profit margin), taxed their sale and shifted some enforcement funds to drug rehabilitation to curb the demand. Just making certain drugs legal wouldn't necessarily mean an overall rise in drug use if you concentrate on rehabbing those addicts who don't want to be addicts.
You might not like the idea. But how is the current approach working out for you?
truckcabbie Feb 19th 2009 9:26PM
Hey kid, I'm 52 and I agree with you but for different reasons. The first being that drug dealers sell to kids mostly because they are already breaking the law.Tobacco and booze are not because those dealers are licensed and responsible to their communities.
But for me the biggest reason is people like you, you have a young and impressible mind, and I do not like the idea of kids figuring out for themselves that if tobacco and booze is legal , taxable , and for sale in stores , with all the health and social ills they cause, why isn't pot and coke? They have tried these and they KNOW FOR A FACT that they are not as bad. How can we now expect these kids to respect the law? How can we expect them to respect the laws concerning other more (the we know for a fact kind) harmful drugs like heroin, crack, crank,? This law against pot is at the very least silly, and at its worst has been very dangerous ,and has proven (In my humble opinion) more harmful than all the illegal drugs put together .Want kids to respect all laws?Make all laws respectable.
bob Feb 19th 2009 4:16PM
WOW vicky- The USA was founded by racist white men? Did you know these men? To imply South African Airways crews get high or are all drug smugglers has nothing to do with race. One maybe saying so is overboard but two seperate crews just got caught smuggling and both were SA crews. Second, if you have ever flown on a SAA international flight you would know that the crews are mostly white. You are a racist. That is right, you are one of the lowest forms of humans. Yelling racism without any thought of the writers intent. If he was racist it would have been against whites not blacks. Not every bad thing that happens in Africa is caused by blacks. Get a life! Quit being a hater.
Vicky Feb 19th 2009 5:32PM
WOW Bob, did you read my post? Nick brought up the topic of race and I simply replied to what he had to say. In case you're too blind sighted by your own ignorance to see that, here is what he said:
nick said...
What can we expect, this was one of the best places to go on a trip before the whites were taken out of power, now the liberals run it and their is nothing but slime, good place to dump our liberals.
Did you get the "ooohh" moment yet? Well perhaps this will do it: Calling all people of color liberal and suggesting that, simply because whites don't run things, South Africa is slime sounds a bit racist to me. And it's true, RACIST white men founded this country--think about slavery. Or here's a modern example, why is it that we are just now electing a black man as president? It's obvious, our country does indeed operate under a white male dominant ideology that we are ALL part of regardless of race. If anyone here is white, don't be offended that our country was founded by white men--some of them racist and thereby feeding into the racism we now see (some of us first hand). The only way to dispel racism is by accepting where it comes from and by dissecting the dominant ideology that we operate under today--the very ideology that allows for white privilege (THAT'S NOT EQUALITY). Claiming reverse racism is simply an internalized racism that you need to realize. Do some research on how our country was founded!
And one more thing, we all know the racist men that fed into the racist country we now live in: Thomas Jefferson was one of them (he was a MAJOR actor in the slave trade AFTER it was declared illegal). Another is a man named James DeWolfe, perhaps you've heard of him? Watch the documentary "Traces of the Trade" and maybe you'll see that reality isn't the picture America paints it to be.