h/t Blink.
An American tourist caused a portion of the Vienna Airport in Austria to shut down after she allegedly tried to take an unexploded World War II artillery shell through customs, reports said.
Austrian customs officials called in the bomb disposal unit to remove the shell after the 24-year-old tourist asked if she could take the “souvenir” on her flight, Deutsche Welle reported.
The incident caused a portion of the arrivals and luggage section of the airport to close for 15 minutes, according to the outlet.
If she’d said she’s Mohammedan they’d have let her go through with no problem.
The tourist was identified as a Mrs. Wile E. Coyote…
It would have been fine as long as no one shook it.
Hit hard with hammer. Unexploded problem solved.
One would assume any danger would include potential danger.
Would the scales be tipped to include some danger had the ordinance exploded? If so, there was more than no danger.
And if indeed there was no danger, why in the world was the poor stupid lady fined $5000? That’s doesn’t seem very fair considering there was never any danger.
You da BOMB, girl!
🙂
The headline says WW I shell. The text says WW II shell. Which one was it? Which one would have been more unstable? Could she plead mental incompetence?
Blink. Good call. I just took it the way FOX thew it out.
I just went to the German paper and they said WWII.
Sheesh.
Thanks for the notice.
Inspector Clusaeu “A Bumbe”?
“Alu Mini Uhm”
Why didn’t she just check it in with her luggage? The hell hand carries shells on the plane? Tip the fuggin’ sky cap a fin and let him deal with it.
@MJA: I noticed that too, but I didn’t mention it because I didn’t want to risk the chance of embarrassing you. I’m thoughtful like that, y’know?
😉
Some moron tried to carry an old bomb on a plane. Who cares which war? Probably WW1 though. They were a lot smaller and use to pitch them out by hand.
Does this story make anyone else nostalgic for the Kaiser?
@Aaron Burr (at 5:43 pm) : Have you seen the videos showing how airport baggage handlers treat luggage?
I’m assuming their union offers health and dental plans to cover these unforeseen eventualities.
@Aaron Burr (at 5:56 pm): Do you mean the King or the car?
Look, I’m not saying I want him to roll up his pants and go for a walk along the beach with the guy, I’m just sayin’ as far as despicable war lords go…. that actually accomplish stuff… he’s right up there with William the Conqueror and Madame Chiang Kai-shek, just a class act.
Most military ordnance is robust in the extreme about being mis-handled, tossed about, dropped, abused etc.
But this thing is seventy plus years old.
All bets are off. You probably couldn’t get the designer himself to roll it over on an exam table.
Funny (to me, anyway) story. When I was stationed at White Sands in the early 80’s I spent some time with the EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) guys on various projects and got to know a few of them.
The senior NCO and I ended up having beers a few times and bullshitting about our jobs. He told me about one call they got from the MP’s at the North gate guard shack about something a local rancher had dropped off. On arrival he saw the warhead from a 50’s era 90mm recoilless rifle round laying on the counter with two MP’s finger poking it.
That particular piece of hardware, in a fired but unexploded state, is incredibly touchy and unpredictable. Lying in the desert for thirty years makes them even more so. To the point they are one of only a few pieces of ordnance the EOD guys are blanket authorized to “Blow In Place”.
I stopped him at this point and said, “No, you didn’t!”. He grinned and said he was tempted but the MP’s had told him the rancher had rolled it out of the bed of his pickup and just dropped it on the counter in the guardshack. He figured if it didn’t sing then it probably wasn’t going to.
He chased the MP’s off and picked that thing up and walked it a couple of hundred yards into the mesquite. They sandbagged it in and blew it out there.
Always enjoyed working with the EOD bunch. Good guys all. They taught me a lot and made my job a lot safer.
WWI bombing run:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_iq0lKTCfU
.
Sign on the back of an EOD guy’s shirt:
“I AM A BOMB DISPOSAL TECHNICIAN.
IF YOU SEE ME RUNNING, TRY TO KEEP UP.”
So twenty four years old which qualifies her to possibly have been through our wonderful higher education system and awarded perhaps a BS, maybe even a MS (which stands for more of the same). She wanted to bring it home to sell and help pay off her student loans.
Time to send another “THANK YOU” text message to my kids for being who they are. Think about it sports fans, certainly none of the offspring of those posting here could begin to approach this level of “DUH!” One more thing to be grateful for…
Have TSA frisk the shell. If it no go boom it’s safe for travel.
She was probably on her way to the anti-Trump rally in London.
Put it under your turban and claim cultural rights.
VIET VET
I have seen that 1st hand many times the last 40 years. SFO is by far the worst; in my small universe of less than 500. But since I an there at least once a year (sometimes 4 times) it is fare ahead of all th others combined!
I have never seen my suitcase thrown completely over the baggage truck; but seen it done several times at SFO since ’80! 1st time I said to the wife, “Why don’t those guys star what there smoking with me!”>
From which war 1 or 2 the artillery shell came from could be confusing. Some url links said ww i, with the headline at the webpage saying ww ii.
A little net searching revealed some interesting info. Specifically that 7.5cm shells were used during both wars.
The Germans sometimes captured Dutch, Italian, French or American artillery and after using up the captured ammo, they had new ammo that would fire in the captured arms made in Berlin. If a shell was made in Berlin to fit a captured Italian made gun the shell would be stamped with an (I) at the end of the Berlin manufacturer’s stamp on the artillery shell.
Well, at least the news story didn’t report the girl was singing the, “If I Had a Hammer” song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUoMTC44OEQ