Subscription Center
October 25, 2010
| 
14
Wildlife smugglers will do just about anything for a quick buck, including sneaking a live predator onto an airplane with no regard for the risk to the animal or fellow passengers. This illegal activity reached a devastating and absurdist extreme recently when a man reportedly smuggled a live crocodile onto a plane departing from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The crocodile got loose, the crew and passengers panicked, and the plane crashed, killing 20 people.
Oddly enough, the crocodile survived the crash, only to be hacked to death by machete-wielding locals on the ground.
Only one passenger lived to bear witness to the events. The unnamed survivor was interviewed by the France-based African news magazine Jeune Afrique, where he said the crocodile was smuggled onto the plane in a sports bag. When the croc escaped, the passengers reportedly rushed toward the cockpit, throwing the plane off balance, the man claimed.
The magazine also reported the crocodile had been intended for resale, although how the crash survivor knew this remains unclear. The incident occurred August 25, but initial reports said the plane had simply run out of fuel.
ITN News has video of the crash site on YouTube.
None of the reports identify the species of crocodile, but the DRC is home to the rare subspecies known as the Congo, or Osborn’s, dwarf crocodile (Osteolaemus tetraspis osborni).
Photo by Sias van Schalkwyk via Stock.xchng
14 Comments
Add a Comment
You must sign in or register as a ScientificAmerican.com member to submit a comment.
Click one of the buttons below to register using an existing Social Account.
Dear American Consumers: Please don’t start eating healthfully. Sincerely, the Food Industry
Chimps in Uganda: Resilience
Dogs and Cats in the Home: Happiness for All?
33 Years Ago Today...
Unusual Offshore Octopods: The See-Through "Glass" Octopus [Video]
Vision is all about change
See what we're tweeting about
kahoakes Anyone seen/made any super cool science websites recently? Last chance to make it into my @sciencefocus column next month... kahoakes NASA Records an Explosion on the Moon So Bright You Could Have Seen It With Your Bare Eyes http://t.co/J4NwMajI4J
notscientific Human cloning: the potential health benefits and the fear of human clones cultivated in labs http://t.co/RCSNxvNjQG
YES! Send me a free issue of Scientific American with no obligation to continue the subscription. If I like it, I will be billed for the one-year subscription.
Share
Email
Print
Eligible for the Darwin Awards Posthumusly?
Link to thisMan’s stupidy never fails to amaze me. I guess it’s
Link to thistime to make a movie about this –Hollywood is always
looking for new stories.
Man’s stupidy never fails to amaze me. I guess it’s
Link to thistime to make a movie about this –Hollywood is always
looking for new stories.
So who’s on the extinction countdown, the crocs or us?
Link to thisIs there science somewhere in this article?
Link to thisThis is an interesting study of human behavior. Guy catches croc, smuggles it aboard plane, croc gets out of bag, humans panic, plane crashes, croc survives, angry people chop up croc instead of the smuggler. Amazing.
Link to thisYes, candide, smuggling wildlife, especially rare and or endangered wildlife is a part of the world of science, as is the invasion of non-native species. And even if you were to pooh-pooh that as not "scientific enough", to answer your sarcasm in a different way, where is the science?
Link to thisOsteolaemus tetraspis osborni in the DRC.
Crocodiles on a Plane.
We’ll make millions.
Link to thisYes, Scrabbled, said Hollywood as they handed the smuggler $50.00 and a plain ticket.
Link to thisThe same as from people anywhere else. Like my brother, an American citizen, who many years ago got on a plane in California with a sack full of baby constrictors (can’t remember now if they were boas or pythons). The little critters nudged the sack open. A passenger sitting in front of my brother called a flight attendant to complain that there was a snake on his seat. My brother leaned forward to ask if it was a boa (or python). The attendants helped keep everybody cool, the snakes were all rounded up and accounted for, and my brother received an escort when he exited the plane, and was disinvited from ever using that airline again… Point is, people are people.
Link to thisSorry, the above comment was intended to respond to tomyerian.
Link to thisThe crocodile was intended for re-sale. How the surviving passenger knew this is a mystery. Well, what else could it have been used for?
Link to thisLet us please remember the victims folks, take a moment and say a prayer.
~ Brother Michael
Link to this<a href="http://www.ulcnetwork.com">Universal Life Church</A>
http://www.ulcnetwork.com
Link to this