[monkeywire] Man and Monkey Detained at La Guardia

Charles Star cdstar at gmail.com
Tue Aug 7 17:21:27 EDT 2007


http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/08/07/a-monkey-on-the-loose-at-la-guardia/

 August 7, 2007,  3:47 pm Man and Monkey Detained at La Guardia

By Sewell Chan <http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/author/schan/>
 [image: Monkey]A spider monkey like the one found at LaGuardia today.
(Photo: Tomas van Houtryve/Associated Press)

Updated, 4:40 p.m.

A man and his monkey traveled from Lima, Peru, to New York City by way of
South Florida, alarming aviation and law enforcement officials.

The man did not report the baby spider monkey when he boarded the flight in
Peru "The monkey business started in Lima, Peru," said Alison Russell, a
spokeswoman for Spirit Airlines, which is based in Miramar, Fla., and began
service to Lima in June. "How the passenger got through security, I can't
begin to say."

The monkey was not noticed when the first leg of his flight landed at Fort
Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, north of Miami, even though the
man had to go through immigration screening upon landing in Florida.

It was only on the second leg of the flight, to New York City, that the
monkey was noticed.

"It was clinging to his pony tail underneath his hat," Ms. Russell said.
"Apparently the monkey started moving around. Some passengers told him, 'Did
you know you had a monkey on your head?' The money never ran up and down. It
was a well-behaved – no doubt shocked – monkey. The monkey spent the
duration of the flight in the passenger's hands."

Because "the monkey posed no threat," Ms. Russell said, there was no need to
make an emergency landing.

The flight, Spirit Airlines Flight 180, landed at 3:01 p.m. from the Fort
Lauderdale-Miami area.

"The passenger and the monkey were taken for questioning by Port Authority
officials," Ms. Russell said, suppressing a laugh.

Pasquale DiFulco, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New
Jersey, which runs La Guardia Airport, said that a host of authorities met
the man and the monkey at the airport, including federal customs and animal
health officials.

The monkey was turned over to New York City Animal Care and
Control<http://www.nycacc.org/>,
which runs the city's animal shelters, and the passenger was turned over to
officers of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. "We're done with it
on this end," Mr. DiFulco said.

An initial report from BNN, a service that monitors police radio
transmissions, had said that the Port Authority police were reporting that a
monkey escaped from Spirit Airlines <http://www.spiritair.com/> Flight 180
at Gate B6 of La Guardia Airport. BNN said that a police emergency service
unit with a cage has been sent to the airport terminal. "MONKEY IS CURRENTLY
IN THE TERMINAL," BNN reported.

Mr. DiFulco subsequently fielded numerous calls from reporters about the
incidents. He assured us, "There was no monkey on the loose at La Guardia."
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