An August plane crash in the Democratic Republic of Congo was blamed on a balance in the small aircraft. But what caused that loss of balance? According to the flight’s only survivor, the passengers were running away from a stowaway on the flight: a live crocodile.
The croc escaped from the duffel bag a passenger had stashed it in while attempting to smuggle the animal.
The real reason for the crash wasn’t initially made public. Shortly after the accident, the Aviation Herald reported:
The passengers noticed that the airplane was not heading for the runway 11/29 (1380 meters/4530 feet long) and began shouting, then rushed to the cockpit unbalancing the aircraft to a point, where control was lost.
A loss of balance was the reason for the crash, yes, but that wasn’t why the passengers rushed the cockpit. The magazine Jeune Afrique reported the real reason earlier this week. but plane was off-balance because of the stampede of terrified passengers and crew trying to get away from the crocodile.
Two passengers survived the crash. Ironically, so did the crocodile. One of the survivors later died, and the crocodile was killed with a machete by an unidentified person.
Les vraies raisons du crash de Bandundu [Jeune Afrique] (Who says my B.A. in French was useless?)
Escaped crocodile sparked panic which brought down airliner killing British pilot and 19 others [Daily Mail] (Thanks, Lauren!)
Crash: Filair L410 at Bandundu on Aug 25th 2010, impacted building [Aviation Herald]
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Consumer lesson: Don’t fly with crocodiles if you can help it.
Maybe it was a service crocodile?
Crocodile on a plane
I fail, *Crocodiles
It’s spelled “Chocodiles.”
It’s spelled “tasty.”
I’m sick of these m’fing crocodiles on this m’fing plane!!
Thank you. I was wondering how far down I was going to have to read before I hit this comment. 3 down. And I didn’t have to post it.
Yep, the inclusion of an escaped crocodile makes the death of 20 people a hoot.
Not a hoot, but it’s one of those “WTF?” things that you can’t comprehend happening but there it is. Extremely sad, but also extremely bizarre.
I don’t know any of those twenty people, so in fact, the crocodile makes it not just funny but roundly hilarious.
Overpopulation is choking off the planet, and these people just aren’t in my monkeysphere.
Lighten up Francis.
Great. Now I’m going to have Yakety Sax in my head all day.
win.
btw: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZPoo9NGtvY
And does anyone else think this is starting to feel like Drew Curtis’s Consumerist or something?
When they said “Check your handbag,” they meant check to see if it’s still alive…
Too bad there wasn’t inflight wifi, they could have used this timely article: artofmanliness.com/2010/10/19/how-to-wrestle-an-alligator/
I know baggage fees are a pain, but seriously, there are some things for which you just gotta suck it up and check them.
This wouldn’t have happened if Chuck Norris was on that plane…
Was the airline a cousin of AirTran (ValuJet)?
Hopefully their families will get “No croc on plane guarantee fee” refunded.
All these women buying alligator skin purses has got to stop. It’s just getting ridiculous.
All these women buying alligator skin purses has got to stop. It’s just getting ridiculous.
Whoa, I didn’t even hit submit twice.
This is a region where people still believe in voodoo style witch-craft (not the new agey wytch craft stuff in the first world) and still don’t understand viral transmission (AIDS, Ebola, etc). So it is understandable they would completely freak about a croc small enough to fit in a duffle bag.
And that the airport security measures weren’t enough to find a croc in a duffle bag means that surely someone would have had a weapon of some sort that they could have killed the croc with…
Um, I don’t think you have to believe in witchdoctors and misunderstand modern medicine to completely freak out about a crocodile on your plane.
Considering the close quarters, I’d say it wouldn’t have been all that frightening. Shocking, yes, but a crocodile that small would have had a hell of a time attacking you. As long as you stayed above or behind it (a simple matter if you climb over seats), you could stay out of it’s range or possibly even hold it’s mouth closed. Not like it could try to do a death roll when it has .2 inches of space in the aisle.
I call water buffalo chips. Neither story rumbas true.
Another account indicated that people rushed into the cockpit, causing the pilot to lose control. Now that would indicate that the pilot was not Captain Sully-level, and that autopilot has not made the same headway in the DRC as in much of the world. But more importantly, it would indicate a lack of hardened cockpit doors.
Twenty people dead due to a croc is a tragedy, but if hardened cockpit doors could have saved them, they could still save hundreds or thousands from a central African 9/11.
I’m just wondering if the owner of the crocodile was one of those survivors…
Why would someone be flying a crocodile-for-resale from Kinsasha – the largest city – to a smaller interior town on the Congo with enough crocs of their own. Surely the croc trade would be in the opposite direction.
the comments on this story are disturbing
I agree. You can’t read anything on this site anymore without people making puns and jokes anyway, which isn’t particularly interesting to read IMO. Then something like this happens, where it’s even more inappropriate. Ugh.
Snark, not English, is the official language of the internet. Get used to it because it ain’t going away.
these are all very *poor* attempts at being funny though. snakes on a plane jokes, chuck norris jokes, airline fees, an insult to the region’s religious practices, and somehow a 9/11 reference was worked in
The only reason this story was posted was to stir up a bunch of hits from people trying to one-up the funny.
I really can’t get too worked up about the comments. That’s what this thread was for, unless you think Consumerist is trying to warn us about the growing crocodile problem on airplanes. When people threadjack the serious stories (which are rare anyway) then you have a point.
Average humor is average.
Okay, but I LOLed.
That they are…At least I have a better idea of whose comments to avoid elsewhere on the site.
WTF!!!!! Where’s the TSA when you need them?
DON’T “TASTE” ME BRO!!
This is what happens when you don’t let the receipt checker check your bag.
Yeah, well who doesn’t take a duffel bag full of crocodile with them while traveling?
The croc probably wasn’t being smuggled — it was an anti-theft device.