Originally Posted by
Crocodile
Haven't seen the video, but there is such a thing as personal responsibility (people outside the USA know about this). The passenger would have filled out the immigration/customs form, there would have been signs up in the terminal as well as announcements in the plane on landing.
Passenger has to pay the fine.
Agree with Kiwi Flyer - some people ignore all the notices. Border Secruity (the Australian TV show) has illustrated this many times - with people trying to enter Australia with suitcases full of food. They think they are special and that their dietary requirements overrule the law. They lie, pretend they don't understand english and whinge when they get caught. Customs officials know when there is an honest mistake and when people are trying to cheat.
Perhaps you should watch the video, then. This had nothing to do with lying or thinking they were special. The Customs official said so many times in this video.
The airline (QF, not UA) passed out apples shortly before landing. No doubt the pax had already filled out their customs declarations much earlier during the flight, and they didn't think twice about sticking the apples in their bags if they could not eat them. This was not about one passenger trying to smuggle fruit. This was dozens of passengers on one flight. They just did not think about customs requirements, and since the airline passed out the fruit just before landing, who can be blamed for assuming that it would be fine to take it with them off of the plane. After all, QF was bringing the fruit to NZ whether or not the passengers handled it.
I think that QF is to blame and should compensate those who were fined.
They should have warned the pax not to take the fruit off of the plane.