Brazilian police ram airplane to stop smugglers

by Stephen Greenwood on

Believe it or not, this isn’t a leaked scene from the set of Lethal Weapon 5; it’s just another day at the office for a few heroic members of the Brazilian Federal Police.

In what is sure to be the highlight of these officers’ careers, a video uploaded to YouTube yesterday shows police in Ribeirão Preto, Brazil chasing down a group of smugglers attempting to take off in a small aircraft.

After gaining enough speed to catch up with the aircraft, the driver decides that the best course of action is to ram straight through the plane’s wing, disabling the craft and allowing officers to arrest five suspects after a month-long investigation.


We’re still wondering if there’s a Federal Police policy for this sort of thing, or if the officers were just… winging it.

One in four travelers smuggle liquids through TSA checkpoints

by McLean Robbins on

A new survey from Skyscanner suggests that as many as one in four travelers smuggle liquids past security – both accidentally and on purpose.

Of the 1,000 poll respondents, 42% agree that current rulings are too restrictive and one in five complaining that airports tend to enforce rules differently. Only 2% believed the legislation did not go far enough.

About 4% of respondents admitted that they have purposely smuggled liquids through security – and got away with it.

We’ve certainly noticed airport security becoming more lax with the 3-1-1 rulings, particularly when the creams and liquids are within travel-sized containers in carry-on or gate checked luggage. Still, it probably isn’t a good idea to try to smuggle in liquids that are in flagrant disregard of the rules. Anything that makes travel more difficult for you and your fellow patrons likely isn’t a great idea.

How smartphones are changing air travel

by Jessica Festa on

According to SITA/Air Transport World’s 2011 Passenger Self-Service Survey, airline passenger use of smartphones has doubled in the past year, making it now 54%. Not only that, but 74% of business and first class passengers had a smartphone on them at the time of data collection. The survey questioned 2,457 air passengers from 70 countries and 73 airlines.

In an article from The Press, they state that the CEO of SITA, Francesco Violante, is calling this type of smartphone enthusiastic traveler the “mobile-centric passenger”. These fliers expect “personal and timely communication from airlines, airports and other providers of travel-related services.”

The data collected by the survey shows that passengers aren’t just using their smartphone for work and personal reasons, but also for travel. For example, 31% of passengers have used a smartphone to check-in for their flight and 17% had used mobile boarding passes. While this percentage may not seem huge, it is most likely because not all airports and airlines are using technology to its fullest capability yet. In fact, 73% of survey respondents said they would like to use mobile boarding passes.

Airports aren’t ignoring this data, as plans for 2014 show, including 97% of airlines planning to offer web check-in, 89% planning to offer mobile check-in, 87% planning to offer bar-coded boarding passes for mobiles, and 63% planning to allow fliers to print luggage tags at kiosks.

While technology isn’t going to change air travel overnight, it is certainly on its way to altering the way people travel and fly. Only time will tell what else technology has in store for the future of travel.

Man detained in Cayenne, French Guiana airport for having hummingbirds in his pants

by Jessica Festa on

A Dutch man was detained at Rochambeau airport in Cayenne in French Guiana for attempting to smuggle over a dozen live hummingbirds out of the country. The passenger was apparently acting suspicious and searched by authorities. According to Jeanna Cullinan of insightcrime.org, each of the tiny birds were wrapped in cloth to keep them still, and then placed into pouches that were located above the man’s crotch. When authorities checked his record, they found that this was not his first conviction for attempted hummingbird smuggling.

While this may sound bizarre, this type of crime is known as “eco-trafficking” and is quite a lucrative business, although illegal. Eco-trafficking is the act of “trafficking in rare and endangered species” and generates billions of dollars for organized crime groups in Latin America. Worldwide, Interpol believes that eco-trafficking brings in up to $20 billion in profits annually.

Your hotel room safe: not as safe as you think

by McLean Robbins on




Most travel safety tips suggest that you should always remember to leave your valuables in the hotel safe. But just how “safe” is it? A new video posted by consultant skyrangerpro suggests that your hotel safe may not be as secure as you think.

Posted while skyranger was on travel in Markham, Ontario (hotel name not specified), the electronic safety boxes that allow you to program your own four digit codes opened with the default code of all zeroes, usually 0000. This standard safe looks just like most of the ones we’ve found in our hotels across the country.

It’s a valuable lesson for travelers who think they are being secure with their valuables – check to make sure this password isn’t your default setting before storing goods in your safe. If it is, opt to check your goodies at the front desk (where another safety box is usually available).

Our intrepid gear reporter Scott Carmichael wrote about the hotel safe issue back in 2009, and suggested a worthwhile but expensive alternative – a personalized locking device. Sean McLachlan suggested ways to hide valuables around your hotel room.

Tell us, which tactic would you take?