Otter madness: More than 30 animals smuggled on flight from Thailand to Taiwan

Bangkok – Thailand has suspended an airport worker after two travellers smuggled more than 30 live animals – including two baby otters – onto a flight to Taiwan.

The mobile menagerie, which also included 28 baby tortoises and a marmot, was seized when the Thai Vietjet flight landed at Taipei’s Taoyuan Airport on Wednesday.

Local media reported that the unusual cargo came to light when several of the animals escaped and were found crawling around in the plane cabin.

Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport said the animals slipped through screening due to human error.

“We have examined the CCTV (closed-circuit television) and found that the smugglers were two foreigners who had their luggage scanned through an X-ray machine,” the airport said in a statement issued late on Thursday.

An employee monitoring the X-ray images suspected that the luggage contained banned items and asked another worker to check it. But the worker did not do so and, instead, let the passengers pass through the checkpoint, added the airport.

The worker who failed to inspect the bag was suspended while a probe was carried out.

Meanwhile, the Taiwanese authorities said they were also investigating the two suspected smugglers.

Thailand is a major transit hub for wildlife smugglers who often sell the animals to China and Vietnam. AFP