Airport Security Spot Baby in Hand Luggage, Using Scanner

An Egyptian couple is in hot water after they attempted to smuggle — not drugs, weapons or expensive Oriental rugs — their baby into the United Arab Emirates by shoving the child into a zipped piece of hand luggage and sending the newborn through a scanner at the airport.

Imagine for a second how manhandled bags get, that they are often thrown, dropped or slammed down when scanned, and it quickly becomes apparent just one of the ways putting a newborn baby in a carry on bag is a bit of a health threat, one that could not too unreasonably be imagined to result in accidental death for a fragile baby.

Babies on airplanes are a hot-button issue all around, due to the fact they tend to cry, scream, wet themselves, spit up and cause a generally unpleasant environment for people who are travelling childlessly and just wish to have a peaceful flight. (It is not known how long the parents had the child concealed in the bag.)

This is the amazing part — it appears the parents got caught not at the airport they departed from, but rather, the airport at which they arrived. Initially, the couple traveled to Egypt from the UAE to have the baby, but traveled back after the child’s birth. Due to the fact the pair lacked documents for the baby, they feared they would be unable to enter.

Both parents have been arrested for exposing the child to dangerous conditions and radiation in the bag, and a Sharjah Police spokesman told press:

“They were risking the life of the baby… They said in an interrogation they’d resorted to sneaking him through inside a bag because he did not have a passport or visa and they wanted to have him with them in the UAE.”

A second official commented:

“When customs officials saw the baby inside the bag at the X-ray scanner, they were stunned. This machine is very dangerous for anyone, let alone a baby in a bag to pass through… A case will now be raised against the mother and father – they both have visas to come to the UAE, but they have put the life of their child at risk.”

It is currently unclear if the child was returned to his or her parents’ custody, or if the baby was removed by social services.