Flight attendants noticed something unusual when one passenger refused everything on a long flight—and alerted authorities.
It’s no secret that, when you travel, you’re being watched. Regardless of what country you’re in, trained representatives from airports, airlines and hotels are watching for certain behaviors. We’ve gone over some of them in the past:
- The first things TSA agents notice about you
- 7 activities that could earn you a secondary TSA security screening
- What flight attendants are really doing when they greet you on the plane
So when a plane passenger starts showing behavior that appears harmless enough but is still weird, flight attendants are going to notice and might act upon it if they think there’s something “not right” happening.
That’s exactly what happened on a flight from Saudi Arabia to India a while back, according to News18.
Air India offers 19 flights between Jeddah and Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport every day. The flight typically takes about five and a half hours, so the flight attendants offer both food and beverage service (typically water, tea, and a snack).
However, one passenger consistently refused all refreshments throughout the flight. And during a five-and-a-half-hour flight,” that’s just not normal. The flight attendants started to become suspicious of his behavior, so they informed the captain. He then contacted security agencies at IGI via air traffic control.
When the plane landed in Delhi, security personnel monitored the passenger in question. However, when he tried to go through customs, he was stopped for questioning.
It didn’t take much for the man to admit he had gold concealed in his rectum. As it turned out he was concealing about 1096.76 grams of gold paste in 4 capsules.
The value was determined to be over 6,900,000 Indian Rupees (about $81,420).
He was arrested under relevant sections of the Customs Act after he admitted to smuggling gold from Jeddah, and an investigation was launched into the incident.
It wasn’t a coincidence or a whim that the Air India flight attendants found the guy’s behavior suspicious. Earlier in the year, a souvenir shop at Chennai Airport had been discovered to be a front for a Sri Lankan gold smuggling syndicate. The shop’s owner was a YouTube influencer who had been recruited by the syndicate to help them smuggle gold…until he was arrested for his role in helping to smuggle 267 kg of gold over a period of about 2 months, in the same way as the Air India passenger had. Since then, cabin crew had been instructed to watch out for passengers who refused to consume anything on long flights, because they would be suspected of smuggling gold in their bodies.
It might seem harmless to skip food and drinks on a flight. Plenty of travelers do it for all sorts of reasons.
But in this case, it was enough to raise red flags—especially given what authorities had already uncovered earlier in the year.
Sometimes, it’s not what you do on a flight that draws attention. It’s what you don’t do.
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