Visited Athens and the island of Kythira in June of 2002 with my Greek fiance, John.
John liked to make his own coffee every morning and apparently
had to travel with his own equipment and supplies.
This included a small propane canister to provide fuel for a miniature Coleman stove.
For what it’s worth I recall having a conversation with him before we left regarding the potential hazards of taking this on a plane.
But he insisted and off we went.
The coffee making paraphernalia traveled with us in a suitcase via plane from Pittsburgh to JFK Airport in New York City and finally to Athens, Greece.
Not one security alert popped up along this journey.
Remember this was not quite a year after the September 11th attacks in the states and the airline screening apparatus was overly vigilant.
Well maybe except for the major airlines in the big cities.
Several days later on the short flight from Athens to the very small island of Kythira some observant Greek airline employee spotted the propane canister.
Once the plane landed, an announcement was made for everyone to remain in their seats.
Except for me and John.
I had no idea what was going on and neither did he.
Several Greek police came for us.
On our walk of shame down the aisle we passed a Greek orthodox priest in full liturgical gear casting either a blessing or an evil eye our way.
We were escorted cautiously by the Hellenic authorities out to the tarmac where a group of what appeared to be bomb squad experts were gathered in serious formation some distance from the aircraft.
It soon became clear that they knew our names but were sweating bullets trying to identify what they had discovered in our international luggage.
One man emerged from the formation gingerly holding the small propane canister with both hands out from his chest.
He walked very slowly towards us and inquired in non threatening heavily accented English,
“Meester Meeler. Vat ees dis ting?”
I was envisioning imminent banishment to some dodgy Greek lockup.
Or worse.
Thankfully, several minutes of conversation in Greek between John and the authorities resolved the situation to their satisfaction.
However, they did confiscate the propane canister before allowing us to leave.
I don’t how or why it took this long for any of the security personnel along the way to discover the canister. Especially during this era of heightened worldwide security.
Kudos to those workers at that small Kythira airport who discovered it and acted to protect a plane load of passengers.
John and his coffee equipment suffered no downtime.
There were loads of these canisters for sale in shops all across the island.
Which begs the question of why he felt the need to transport
one if he knew they were available upon arrival?
