Stringent airport security controls have forced travellers to part with many bottles or pairs of tweezers, but some passengers have tried to smuggle far less innocent items on to their planes. Search engine Jetcost lists its top 10.

1. A turtle in a hamburger

It is not completely unfeasible to connect a hamburger with a turtle. There really are some similarities: the round shape and the shiny green colour (be it skin or lettuce).

This connection apparently motivated a man in China called Li to board a flight to Beijing with his turtle inside a KFC bun.

When crossing the X-rays, the inspectors discovered some “strange bulges” in the burger. When asked about it, Mr Li answered: “This is not a turtle, but just a hamburger. There is nothing to see.”

Sadly his powers of persuasion failed to convince the security staff.

One father tried to hide a gun in his son’s toys.One father tried to hide a gun in his son’s toys.

2. A weapon and ammunition in cuddly toys

One alarming case was an American father who tried to board a plane to Detroit with a weapon and ammunition hidden in his four-year-old son’s stuffed toys.

When the toys were scanned at Rhode Island T.F. Green airport, the Transport-ation Security Administration officers saw what looked like a container full of bullets inside an apparentlyharmless white rabbit.

Next came a teddy bear, also carrying a surprise: inside was a 40-calibre gun frame. Lastly, the agents put through a Mickey Mouse toy that contained the slide and the barrel needed to mount the gun. The authorities took the man and his son into custody but, after interrogating them for several minutes, they allowed them to board without any type of ban.

After investigating, both the FBI and the airport investigators concluded “they did not represent a threat to air security”. But the weapon and ammunition were confiscated.

3. Tadpoles in the mouth

A South Korean woman was arrested in China’s Guangzhou airport when she tried to pass through security checks with her mouth full of tadpoles.

The odd story began when the airport guards saw a bottle in her hand luggage.

In accordance with the rules for inter-national flights, the guards asked the passenger to drink the liquid or throw out the bottle. The woman chose the first option.

The civil servants nevertheless realised the woman had filled her mouth with liquid without swallowing it, and requested she spit it in a bucket.

The passenger complied, leaving both the airport employees and the many flight passengers stunned: along with the liquid, she spat out dozens of wriggly creatures.

She explained a friend had given her the tadpoles and she did not want to lose them.

Her moving story did not convince the guards, who made her get rid of her pets before boarding the plane.

4. Seven snakes and three turtles in trousers

A man tried to board a US plane for Brazil with bags full of exotic snakes and turtles hidden in his trousers.

Transportation Security Administration spokesman Jonathon Allen said the man was withheld after passing a complete body tomography detector at Miami International Airport.

Security staff discovered several nylon bags with seven snakes and three turtles.

The South Florida Sun Sentinel said the animals were confiscated by the Federal Department of Fish and Wildlife and the passenger was arrested.

5. A corpse in a wheelchair pretending to be a passenger

Two women were arrested at a British airport when they tried to board a plane with a relative’s cadaver as a passenger.

The 41- and 66-year-old German women were arrested at Liverpool John Lennon airport for “failing to give notification of the death” of the 91-year-old man, the relative with whom they were trying to travel to Berlin.

According to inform-ation revealed by the BBC, they laid him in a wheelchair and put a pair of sunglasses on him. Check-in desk workers noticed something suspicious and realised the man was dead, although the women insisted that he was only asleep.

6. A crocodile in a sportsbag

The most serious case was a stowaway crocodile that escaped from the luggage it was carried in, causing so much anxiety among passengers that it made the plane crash, resulting in 20 deaths in 2010.

The crocodile was hidden in a sports bag, along with the documents necessary to sell it, but it escaped, spreading terror.

The panicking passengers’ movement caused a loss of balance and the plane crashed into a house during a flight from Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo, to Bandundu.

The only survivor told the unbelievable story to investigators. Ironically, the crocodile survived the accident, though the rescuers killed it with a machete.

7. A cranium and several human teeth in a suitcase

Security agents at Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood International Airport, Florida, found a skull and human teeth in the luggage of two women who were travelling to Baltimore, Maryland.

According to Broward Police, the women declared they had visited Cuba recently, where they bought two sealed containers in a religious store.

One of the containers broke and they found pieces of a cranium and some teeth.

Peter Mayhew – seen above right with fellow Star Wars actor Harrison Ford – found his ‘lightsabre’ walking stick caused him trouble with airport security.Peter Mayhew – seen above right with fellow Star Wars actor Harrison Ford – found his ‘lightsabre’ walking stick caused him trouble with airport security.

The women, who were going to board an AirTran Baltimore flight, offered to stay to talk with the police to clarify the incident.

8. A Star Wars lightsabre

Air force officials have now seen cases from another planet. Peter Mayhew, the actor who played the hairy Wookie Chewbacca in the Star Wars film saga, was going back to his home in Texas when officers stopped him before boarding a plane in Denver.

Why? He was carrying a lightsabre. In fact, the 2.21-metre English comedian who had just appeared in the Colorado ComicCon, provoked a serious debate among security agents about whether it was a threat.

Annoyed, Mayhew tried to explain that due to his height and age – he was almost 70 – he needed it as a walking stick.

Finally, American Airlines staff came to the rescue and managed to convince the TSA agents that it was extremely unlikely that a famous actor would hijack a plane armed with a fake lightsabre.

Three men tried to smuggle some slow lorises out of India in their underwear.Three men tried to smuggle some slow lorises out of India in their underwear.

9. Pygmy monkeys in underwear

At New Delhi airport in India three men planned to travel to Dubai, but police detected an odd lump in their trousers.

This trio intended to smuggle and sell an endangered species: slow lorises.

When inspecting the men’s underwear, Indira Gandhi International Airport authorities realised they contained several of the primates native to Indonesia.

The lorises were in bags that two of the men carried in their boxers. The airport police arrested them and the People For ­Animals organisation took the primates.

10. A knife in a mayonnaise jar

A man tried to fly from New York to Mexico City with a knife hidden inside a mayonnaise jar: both were confiscated, according to the USA Transportation Security Administration.

The man was intercepted by the John F. Kennedy International Airport authorities when the agents discovered the weapon.

New York and New Jersey Port Authority Police confiscated the knife and the mayonnaise, but allowed the passenger to board without pressing charges.

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