For all the hoopla that accompanies civil aviation security these days, a 35-year-old man cocked a snook at the security staff at Dabolim airport as he smuggled in a live snake aboard an Indian Airlines plane this Saturday.The drama that is now a subject of a high-level inquiry by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) began minutes after the flight (IC-576) took off from Goa. Beverages were yet to be served when the passenger, H. Chadha, asked the air hostess for some milk.The hostess told him that milk would be served along with the beverages but Chadha persisted with his demand. By then a suspicious hostess brought him the milk but kept a watch on the quiet. And then it happened. Chadha reached into his handbag and brought out a 12-inch snake. The crew managed to get him put away the snake and kept the baggage in custody. On arrival in Chennai, Chadha refused to budge from the plane. He claimed to have purchased the snake for Rs 1,000 and wondered why the crew was making such a fuss about it.The crew alerted the local police who arrested him under the Prevention of Cruelty Against Animals Act. Initial inquiries revealed he was from Chennai and had travelled to Goa by an IA flight on February 25.Later, the airlines reported the matter, leading to BCAS ordering an inquiry into how Chadha was able to fox CISF personnel. Apart from the X-ray machine, hand baggages are put through a thorough manual check even at the ladder point. That Chadha was able to get a live snake past these security layers has rung alarm bells here.
