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Holiday mum flies home with undetected knife in luggage
Portuguese airport officials have launched an investigation into how a British mum managed to board a flight from Faro with a nine-inch serrated bread knife – undetected.
Helen Mallon, 43, from Bath, got through X-ray machines, metal detectors and security guards with the novelty knife, in a scabbard shaped like a baguette, the Press Association reports.
She bought the silly item during a delay in her flight, put it in her hand luggage and forgot about it when she boarded the plane. She took it all the way to Exeter airport without being caught.
Mrs Mallon was on her way home from a week-long holiday in Portugal and was with boyfriend Simon and her children Paddy, 13, and Georgina, 10.
“It was not until after checking in the luggage and going through the scanners before boarding that plane that I thought ‘Oh my God, I have still got the knife’,” she told the Press Association.
The family boarded the flight, part of a package holiday booked through Style Holidays, and decided not to tell cabin staff about the knife.
Mrs Mallon said she had had a pair of tweezers confiscated before and so she kept quiet. The knife remained in a plastic bag in an overhead locker.
A spokesman for Faro airport said a thorough investigation was under way to find out how she managed to bypass the security checks.
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