Baboon Escaped American Airlines Flight, Cornered Near Baggage Claim

by Gary Leff

American Airlines flight AA1014 from Chicago O’Hare to San Antonio was delayed 47 minutes today. Apparently after arriving in Texas a baboon onboard broke free. It was on the loose but the Man With The Yellow Hat emergency responders stepped into action.

The baboon originated at Brown University. It made it through its Chicago connection, but got free of its crate after being offloaded from the aircraft.

Here’s video:

Apparently the baboon didn’t like its future life in Texas — maybe it’s the lack of public transportation options, although I think it underappreciates the San Antonio dining scene and relative lack of red tape starting a business. This is the second time in several weeks that a baboon has gotten free in San Antonio.

At least this monkey didn’t get free inside the cabin. And it didn’t get stopped at customs.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. Secret Service agents lured him back to the White House with pussy-scented bananas and orange spray tan.

  2. Not an emotional support baboon, then, ostracized by AA’s new policies? 🙂

  3. Assuming the quote came from AA, it didn’t “escape.” Rather, it “inadvertently became free of his cage.” Sort of like David Dao being “re-accommodated” by UA.

  4. Its just a good thing he was not in the cabin. Imagine his reaction if the plane had been retrofitted with no seatback IFE and the most uncomfortable seats, ungodly and most space deprived cabin in the industry. I won’t even begin to imagine what would have happened if he went to that tiny new lav. OMG and what if he was lucky enough to be up front and they did not serve a pre-departure beverage.

  5. Maybe the baboon is not too happy about the gun nuts in Texas either. But as a person living in Texas, I have no problem with the government taking all the guns away from the crazy gun nuts around me. They’ve only shown that they’re totally insane and don’t deserve to have guns. He’s probably afraid of getting shot up with every redneck here carrying more guns than members of their family.

  6. It hated the onboard food and surly service so it bolted
    Apparently he isn’t a fan of the current management that runs the airline
    or the stingy award availability.He was also frustrated with having to recheck his luggage with 2 different Locators

  7. @Ray – exactly what I was thinking.

    There’s no doubt the baboon is a lot smarter than the texas rednecks (which shouldn’t come as a surprise).

  8. That was not a baboon. It was Parker’s personal assistant. After checking out the new lav, it fled the plane.

  9. I’m not sure if I’m happy or upset I missed this at SAT this afternoon. I landed there about 1:15pm but was out of the airport just prior to this. I’m not sure this really much help to the “super fast” baggage claims process at this airport in my experience 🙂

  10. You know, I am really here about travel. I don’t want to hear about politics. The left wing is always in your face nasty.

    Gary. I love this story, it is very funny. Several thoughts:
    (1) Maybe Americans Airlines should be renamed King Kong Airlines.
    (2) In the 70s and 80s, American Tourister used to give its luggage to a gorilla to show how tough their bags were (search youtube gorilla American Tourister). I guess this is a baboon trying to get into suitcase commercials.
    (3) Like Johhny said, except, maybe it was really an AA executive? You might notice that like an AA executive: (a) the baboon was not sitting in the little cramped seat, (b) using the mini bathroom, and on the video (c) appears to have a white shirt and (d) a perfectly fitting grey wool suit on.

  12. I thought they were filming the next Planet of the Apes installment: Baboons Invading Texas. Think about it, this is the 2nd monkey in SA to escape in two weeks. I can see how the ORD to SA flt would trigger the next POTA revolution. Except this time all the frequent flyers join them.

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