30th Mar 2008
Fumigation
This article, Air NZ passengers fumigated, brought back some childhood memories. I’ve flown to New Zealand twice, and was fumigated twice, which means someone came on the plane once it landed in Auckland, sprayed us with some unknown chemical, and locked the doors while the chemical settled over us. It was very freaky. This is supposedly unusual (fumigation) nowadays because of biosecurity clearances. Remind me of the fumigation incidents when I get cancer.
Wow. I can’t even imagine this happening in the US without some kind of lawsuit. It reminds me of my friend, who spent his high school years in Belgium as a diplomat’s child, describing an incident at the airport in which every 10th person was subjected to a strip and cavity search. He pulled his diplomatic immunity card, so they just went to the next person in line - who, I’m sure, was thrilled.
It’s hard to imagine it happening. In fact, when I read that news story, it was almost like some weirdly repressed memory coming back to me. The fact that the flight from Fiji to New Zealand (or Hawaii to New Zealand) is soooooo long sort of lulls you into this state where you’ll do anything just to get off the plane. But, man, it’s not a cavity search. My god.
Oh my god a cavity search. I would just go home.