Fumes From Handbag Sicken Passengers on Flight From L.A.
Acrid fumes from a passenger’s handbag on an overnight flight from Los Angeles sickened several people and led to its owner’s arrest for possession of illegal narcotics.
The American Airlines flight was halfway to New York early Sunday with 143 passengers and 11 crew members when the odor wafted through the coach cabin, causing a spate of coughing and burning eyes, said Alan Hicks, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
Flight attendants traced the smell to a piece of hand luggage that contained two bottles, one of them broken and leaking a foul-smelling liquid. The other bottle contained an amber-colored liquid that the bag’s owner claimed was whiskey.
On landing at Kennedy International Airport, passenger Lisa Patricia Bowman, 32, told police the leaking liquid was a home remedy made by her mother in Los Angeles and destined for her grandmother.
When called by detectives, however, the “mother” in Los Angeles denied she was Bowman’s mother and said she knew nothing of the alleged remedy, Hicks said.
Meanwhile, a police test of the Canadian Club whiskey bottle revealed that it contained liquid cocaine, he said.
Bowman, of Los Angeles, was held on charges of possession of a controlled substance, reckless endangerment and conspiracy, Hicks said.
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