Tuesday evening April 8, British Airways flight 2202 from Cancun to London Gatwick wound up delayed more than 24 hours after Mexican authorities carried out a significant drug raid on the aircraft.
The 8 p.m. departure had already been delayed around 100 minutes due to a late arriving inbound aircraft, Boeing 777-200 registered as G-YMME. The flight began boarding as-expected after this delay, though, with flight attendants and pilots coming onto the aircraft and then gate agents boarding premium cabin passengers, families with small children, and those requiring assistance.
However boarding abruptly stopped, and passengers were offloaded back to the gate area without explanation. Staff announced another short delay, promising an update within 10 minutes. However, communication ceased entirely for several hours.
Around 10:23 p.m., activity was visible round the aircraft. Mexican National Guard and local police arrived at the gate area, accompanied by sniffer dogs. Authorities moved toward the security checkpoint with drug-testing swabs.
Then authorities removed multiple packages, described by observers as bricks of cocaine, from a suitcase near the aircraft.
Huge Cartel Drug Bust BA2202 – Cancun to Gatwick – Bricks Found.
byu/Skyson770 inBritishAirways
Several passengers reported rumors that two British Airways cabin crew members had been arrested in connection with the discovery. No official confirmation has been provided.
Nearly five hours after the original scheduled departure, passengers were informed that the flight was canceled. British Airways cited “circumstances entirely out of our control,” and indicated the aircraft required extensive investigation and potentially faced seizure for several days by Mexican authorities.
Since British Airways operates only one daily roundtrip between Cancun and Gatwick, airline representatives indicated passengers would likely be re-accommodated on other airlines back to Europe. Checked bags were returned to passengers, who were screened by border agents as they left the terminal.
Hotels were provided, with passengers arriving at properties around 2 a.m. although some reported delays of several hours actually receiving rooms – reaching their doors as late as 5:30 a.m. and even 8 a.m. They were told they had to check out by 11 a.m. although 3 p.m. late checkout was eventually secured. (Since passengers were put up at family resorts, music, children’s activities, and noise began as early as 9 a.m.)
Aircraft G-YMME wound up operating the next day as BA9603 after Mexican authorities completed investigations and cleared the aircraft for the flight home.
(HT: Paddle Your Own Kanoo)
For premium cartel drug smuggling, fly Delta Airlines.
The war on drugs is such a profound waste of the human endeavor. Please allow me a moment to finish my dim sum lunch, and then I will type up some more substantive thoughts.
When you voluntarily choose to vacation in a narco state, you get what you get. Be thankful you escaped with your life.
Mexico isn’t a “narco state” it’s a country full of beautiful people with strong work ethics and a natural knack for hospitality. While, as with all countries, scammers exist and a tourist must be vigilant, there is no reason to avoid Mexico for either business or leisure. Now, onto the drug issue –
Drugs are endemic to society. That dim sum lunch I just had? The chef is probably a cokehead. The high rise office building I work from? The bankers who financed it and the real estate professionals who developed it almost certainly have a coke habit as well. Cocaine and other drugs are absolutely everywhere. When authorities make a bust, they’ve found a fraction of a percent of the actual drug trade. Yet, taxpayers pay a fortune in police services dedicated not to protection or community safety, but to the seizure of items that are inert unless you choose to use them.
Stop the war on drugs NOW. Legalize all drugs.
And, as this news shows, it’s not just money that taxpayers are on the hook for. I make plenty of money and I don’t particularly care about some tax dollars going to frivolous policing, if it’s of no consequence to me. I personally don’t use drugs or engage in its trade in any capacity.
But, when drug raids like this happen, taxpayers aren’t just out dollars. They’re out time. They’re inconvenienced. It is the height of disrespect to inconvenience someone in a way that can’t be paid back. Money can be loaned and earned. Time cannot. The silly war on drugs just cost a planeload of people a shitton of hassle. And we haven’t even discussed all the human beings in jails and prisons all over the world for no crime, no threat to anyone’s safety, beyond the – gasp! – trade of inert chemical substances.
End the war on drugs NOW.
so was it the BA crew members or not?
as many crew departed as arrived?
So long as the demand exists the product will come.
“Some, I assume, are good people…”
Those poor passengers. Since BA already claimed ‘out of their control,’ I bet the airline is trying to skirt liability from UK261 compensation rules. It’s a shame because many travel insurance policies often limit coverage to delays over 72 hours or affecting 50% of the trip, so it’s practically insult to injury.
@Thing 1 — If you’re going to do the meme, at least do it right: “If (snarky comment), please consider Delta.” For @Matt’s sake! Also…Keep Climbing!
Likely Mexican authorities wouldn’t let the airline release passengers to hotels. This is what you get for vacationing in Mexico.
@Unintimidated, really? And you have examined all the unintended consequences of legalizing lethal drugs? “Short term goals have long term effects” Sir (I’m guessing your are) . . . think about it for a few minutes rather than do a knee jerk reaction. My observations of drug use is that if it can be abused, there are many who will. And before you start pounding your chest about legalizing all drugs, be advised that I, like many, have experienced what drug use does to a family. In 1970 there was no War on Drugs. My 26 year old brother with a wife and 2 small children overdosed and died. The children never knew their father. He didn’t grow it and he didn’t manufacture it. This is not an untypical story but it’s a side effect of drugs and alcohol not often discussed. Enjoy your dim sum lunch.
One Trippe – my condolences to you on your loss of your brother. Still, one would think the US learned nothing from Prohibition. Prohibition greatly increased organized crime in the US, because, when there is a demand for a substance, there will be a supply. Just because there wasn’t a war on drugs in 1970 did not mean that drugs were legal or that there were no attempts to prevent people from taking those drugs. I remember being in school in the late 60s, where they showed a movie of someone getting hooked on opiates and eventually overdosing and dying as part of the anti-drug education.
Legalizing a substance does not mean its use should be encouraged. One only has to look at the Oxycontin disaster, but that was caused by the medical system promoting it’s use for people with chronic pain. There has to be some middle ground between making drugs available on demand and driving the market so far underground that it has caused effects such as civil wars and large incarcerated populations. Discourage use, offer programs which help people kick their additions, and deal with the mental or physical issues which drove them to these drugs in the first place.