Cecilie Keenan finds a spider in the overhead baggage on her flight from Perth to Auckland and was told by the air hostess to kill it. / Dean Purcell
A Kiwi woman who discovered a spider on her flight from Perth to Auckland is concerned after cabin crew appeared not to recognise it as a potential biosecurity breach.
Cecilie Keenan's Air New Zealand flight was disembarking on December 29 when another passenger noticed a spider "about the size ofa 50c piece" on a man's back.
She believed it was a funnel-web, an extremely poisonous Australian species, due to its size and colouring, though admitted she was not a "spider expert".
Upon seeing the spider, which was "a decent size - it wasn't just a piddly little money spider", Keenan alerted a crew member.
"I immediately turned around and said to the air hostess, 'There's a spider on this gentleman's back, it's come out of the overhead locker'."
The air hostess gave her what Keenan said was a cleaning spray and said she should spray it on the spider, which by this time had crawled off the man's back and onto his bag.
Keenan was worried the spider would flee if sprayed and they would lose track of it, which could create a biosecurity problem.
She convinced the air hostess it needed to be squashed.
"She then handed me her shoe, a passenger handed me their sneaker and I'm standing here like, 'Why am I the nominated one here, it's not even my bag'."
Cecilie Keenan was on a flight from Perth to Auckland when she saw the potentially poisonous spider. Photo / Dean Purcell
Keenan whacked the spider with the sneaker, killing it, and told the air hostess the find needed to be reported. However, the woman gave no indication she would do so and didn't even tell other crew members, Keenan said.
"Being a Kiwi I was very adamant about it, knowing that I live in Australia which has the worst spiders in the world."
Whether the spider was a funnel-web or not didn't matter, said Keenan, who has lived in Perth with her husband for the last 10 years.
Keenan said she was concerned by the seeming lack of action by crew for charter company Hi Fly, who were manning the flight on behalf of Air New Zealand.
A spokesman for the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) said the department had been alerted to what happened by a member of the public - not Hi Fly.
"MPI was notified of this, and is currently looking into it," he said.
"The flight in question was a charter flight with a charter crew. MPI understands the plane was treated with a WHO approved residual treatment, so at this stage we don't believe there are any potential biosecurity issues."
An Air New Zealand spokeswoman told the Herald the company was not told of the incident at the time.
"Our team has been following up with the customer and Hi Fly prior to your enquiry."
Commercial aircraft regularly underwent pest control procedures, she said.
"It is the responsibility of the operating carrier (in this case Hi Fly) to report any insects found on board and where possible pass this on to the relevant biosecurity authority on arrival."
