Grandmother shuts down entire airport with THIS innocent spelling mistake
A 65-year-old grandmother shut down Brisbane International Airport in Australia, and it's all because of a spelling error.
In a moment of confusion, the pensioner wrote "Bomb to Brisbane" on the front of her luggage, and was shocked when it was cordoned off by authorities.
Venkata Lakshimi, from Mumbai, had meant to write "Bombay to Brisbane" on the case, but had run out of space to write the final two letters on.
Bombay is now officially called Mumbai, but many of the older residents, such as Lakshimi, refer to it by it's older name.
So, this caused a bit of an issue at #Brisbane airport. Police cordoned off part of the terminal after this bag popped out on the luggage belt. The passenger was coming from Mumbai, formerly Bombay.
Airport code: BOM. #CommonwealthGames2018 pic.twitter.com/p7qgTFLMsX
— Siobhan Heanue (@siobhanheanue) 5 April 2018
Speaking to Yahoo news, her daughter, Devi Jothiraj, said her mother was understandably embarrassed by the mix-up.
"She was pulled into a room and was interviewed," she said.
"My mother told me they thought something was in there and people were panicking. They asked her to open the bag and asked her why it says bomb and she said 'It's for Bombay!'".
She continued to say that her mother has limited English and was nervous about flying alone. She was visiting Australia to celebrate her 65th birthday.
Lakshimi was released after officials realised that she was harmless and the contents fo her bags were searched.
"It's understandable with the extra security for the Commonwealth Games. Because she is elderly they probably believed her," Ms Jothiraj said. "She was a bit shy and shocked."
Her daughter and two grandchildren were waiting for her in arrivals for an hour after her flight had landed.
"She understands the mistake she made. She can read and understand a little but she didn't realise it would cause a problem, it went over her head."
To complicate matters further, the airport code for Mumbai is still BOM, which isn't exactly smart in today's airport security.
Luckily, Lakshimi was still able to celebrate her birthday- and now has a hilarious story to tell the grandkids!