Airport Employees Find Cache of 24 Gold bars inside a Plane’s Loo

New Delhi, India – workers for Jet Airways found a most unusual item inside the plane’s toilet: a bag containing 24 bars of gold weighing one kilogram each. Even with the current bear market hitting gold this past year, the bars have a street value of $1.1 million.

The incident occurred as the employees were cleaning out the toilet from a plane which recently landed from Bangkok. It was being prepped for a flight to the metropolis of Patna when the workers saw a bag at the bottom of the septic tank.

“The cleaning staff of the airport were going though their routine duties and found two bags in the toilets of the plane,” airport director BP Mishra told AFP news agency.

The employees dutifully turned the gold over to officials at the airport. The cache is now in possession of Indian customs officials who are attempting to determine what happened with the gold.

In all likelihood, the gold was being smuggled into the country. Gold is an important part of Indian society. The beauty of a woman is accentuated by gold especially from the time she marries and is considered a status symbol. For this reason, India is one of the world’s top importers of gold. The Indian government has been trying to reduce those imports in an effort to keep the money in the local economy. A recent increase in the gold tariff has instead boosted the black market for gold.

On The Web:
Cleaners find 24 gold bars worth $1 million hidden in plane lavatory after flight to India
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/cleaners-find-24-gold-bars-worth-1-million-hidden-in-plane-lavatory-after-flight-to-india/2013/11/20/9c97404c-51c7-11e3-9ee6-2580086d8254_story.html