A few days ago I saw something that I have never seen before in my years of flying in the region: A passenger was carrying a falcon on his arm on a DXB-DOH QR flight.

It was tethered to the passenger's glove, and with a blinder hat on, but otherwise free to flap around and spread its majestic wings, which it did several times in the boarding area. The animal left three large white-ish blobs on the floor in the boarding area in DXB. (I will give you one guess as to how concerned the passenger seemed to be about cleaning this up or alerting other passengers who were walking close by.) I can only imagine what it might have left on the seats or the floor onboard.

I was sitting in F, so assumed that the duo would be next to me, but luckily the passenger walked by toward the back of the plane. I would certainly not want to be the passenger seated next to this menace. Regardless of how well-trained such a bird is, there must be some risk of the beast pecking another passenger. And there must be at least some chance that it could break free from the string, which would be disastrous.

I was shocked that the airline would allow this. Anyone seen it before?