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, 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 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."