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« Dubai's iPod tower | Main | Musharraf and Afghanistan »
2:20PM

Dog days at Cairo airport

Lucky, lucky reporter who filed this:
CAIRO (AFP) - An Egyptian sniffer dog charged with ensuring the security of an EgyptAir flight from Cairo to New York has answered a call of nature that cost the airline an estimated 10,000 dollars.

The flight had to be delayed for more than an hour when the unnamed animal did his business in a cabin filled with 179 passengers on Flight 985, a security source at Cairo international airport said Friday.

While checking the cabin for explosives and other dangerous materials and giving the all clear, the dog did what dogs do and produced something to be sniffed at.

The captain then ordered that the cabin be cleaned and disinfected, resulting in a delay of 65 minutes, the airport source said.

"Each hour a scheduled takeoff is delayed costs the company 10,000 dollars in supplementary fees and penalties," the source said.

The animal is now in the doghouse.
The weird thing is that I must take 8-10 flights from Cairo and other airports a year and have never seen a sniffer dog inside the plane when passengers were there. Is this only on flight to New York?

Anyway, my second favorite Cairo airport story -- the first one remains the time that Amr Moussa, the Sec-Gen of the Arab League, had his plane grounded because the League had not paid its ground services fee and his assistants had to come up with the cash for refueling among themselves.

Reader Comments (7)

The best part about the Amr Moussa story is that his staff did have the money... but in euros, which the airport refused to accept and no bankin facility at the airport would change the money on the spot (from euros to dollars) since it was the depths of the currency crisis. It was symbolic on so many levels.

I was on flight 985 two days before the dog incident. phew.

Dec 23, 2006 at 2:58 PM | Unregistered CommenterPaul Schemm

LOVE the story! Nothing quite so fun happens in US airports- just terrorist this and terrorist that. Wait. Are you sure the dog wasn't a secret Al Queda sympathizer and sending someone a message?

Dec 23, 2006 at 5:43 PM | Unregistered Commenterzazou

OMG!!!! muahahahahahahaha!!!!! am rolling on back. that was so funny!!!! I felt sorry for the dog coz they put him in a doghouse. I dont blame the dog but i blamed the dummy who handled the dog.
Dog is like human being also, they have the right to release itselves. The handler is a dummy he didnt know that coz he thought animal is only animal and it suppose to work like a robot. Shame of you!!!!

Dec 26, 2006 at 5:56 AM | Unregistered Commenterlulu

OMG!!!! muahahahahahahaha!!!!! am rolling on my back. that was so funny!!!! I felt sorry for the dog coz they put him in a doghouse. I dont blame the dog but i blamed the dummy who handled the dog.
Dog is like human being also, they have the right to release itselves. The handler is a dummy he didnt know that. For him animal is only animal and it suppose to work like a robot. Shame of you!!!!

Dec 26, 2006 at 5:58 AM | Unregistered Commenterlulu

that is our country ...

Dec 28, 2006 at 12:43 AM | Unregistered CommenterMohamed

un-official information:

- you won't see the dogs on plains, because this check happens before that passengers are there

- amr mousa story is interesting however i met him before on regular commercial flights, so i don't know when does he use a special jet, or that is a way for reducing the cost

Dec 28, 2006 at 10:05 AM | Unregistered Commentersomeone

WHO CAN BLAME THE DOG AFTER SEEING THE ADVERTISEMENT OF ELBEET BETNA . LOL

Jan 3, 2007 at 8:31 PM | Unregistered CommenterADEL

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