NEW YORK - A man smuggled a monkey onto an airplane Tuesday, stashing the furry fist-size primate under his hat until passengers spotted it perched on his ponytail, an airline official said.

The monkey escapade began in Lima, Peru, late Monday, when the man boarded a flight to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said Spirit Airlines spokeswoman Alison Russell. After landing Tuesday morning, the man waited several hours before catching a connecting flight to LaGuardia Airport.

During the flight, people around the man noticed that the marmoset, which normally lives in forests and eats fruit and insects, had emerged from underneath his hat, Russell said.

"Other passengers asked the man if he knew he had a monkey on him," she said.

The monkey spent the remainder of the flight in the man's seat and behaved well, said Russell, who didn't know how it skirted customs and security.

Airport police were waiting for the man and his monkey when the plane landed about 3 p.m., and the man was taken away for questioning. It was unclear whether he would face any criminal charges.

The city's animal control agency said the monkey appeared healthy. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was planning to take it for disease testing and keep it quarantined for 31 days, CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said.

If the monkey is healthy, it could wind up in a zoo.

"It is kind of a spirited monkey," Russell said. "That will be the nickname of the monkey: Spirit."

What a cute story. Marmocets are the cutest monkeys. I wonder if I can hide my big, pink elephant under my dress on my next flight.

My kitten is sometimes a little monkey

u.s. customs missed it
the tsa missed it

i feel safer already

NY Daily News Article

ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Interesting - if the metal detector can detect explosives, then why do we make people take their shoes off?

I've wondered about this for a while - what's the point of making people take their clothes off, when they can leave their hat on?

I do not know, so I will ask: "NY Daily News" is to news-print what "Saturday Night Live" is to TV journalism, right?

Something of this HAS to be a joke, no reasonable spokesperson for any decent agency or organization could with a straight face make the claim which ms. Uselding is quoted as making in the above.

If this is indeed an accurate quote, then I think I find it more sad than funny that a spokesperson would make that kind of statement.

I wonder if he's finally got the monkey off his back.

But hopefully they took away any liquids over 3.4 oz the guy may have had.

Missing the forest through the trees.

Oh god! I thought monkey wasn't allowed onboard entirely flight. I think the men could be criminal charges bring the monkey onto the flights. I knew that while the customs was missed the monkey while his flight is landed in FLL. It would be continuations to LGA. When the police was taken away for questionable about bring the monkey onboard the flight. Do you think anything more specific informaion about other aminals. I agree with you guys meant the monkey will be taking to the zoo for checking the test any common problems.

I can't believe someone hasn't asked this already. Did anyone ask to touch his monkey once it was exposed?

i thought it was "pat (or pet) the monkey" .

now in addition to the security issues*, how 'bout the health issues? dontcha all remember how paranoid the uk was 'bout folks travelling with their pets and subsequently quarantining them (the pets folks, not the pax ) for 3-6 months. however in this case, a monkey is not a pet cat or dog and could be chock full of little critters 'n parasites (hmmmm, what if it was a parrot? parrot fever would blow the atl lawyer w/tb out of the water). to me, the big problem is not security from them dern ter'wrists but health issues.


*oh wait, according to the tsa, if the monkey was packing, he would have alarmed.

So what if the TSA missed it? I don't see how a small monkey is really a security threat, which is what the TSA is for. The man clearly violated the airline's policies on pets but that's an issue between the passenger and the airline.

As far as customs missing it....definitely an issue. Maybe some of their drug-sniffing dogs should be trained to sniff for monkeys.

But I don't really see this as a "safety" issue.

Oh boy, if they are to be trained for that, then I (and I expect a lot of other pax) will be in trouble after a long-haul in Y....