Pistol problem

Mumbai, Jan. 18: Mumbai’s airport officials cannot understand the words “Prime Minister” when pronounced with a West Indian accent.

Which is why a certain Baldwin Spencer was “apprehended” and questioned yesterday after customs found a revolver in his baggage.

It needed half an hour of grilling for the officials to realise that Spencer was the Prime Minister of Antigua and, as a head of state, was exempt from baggage checks.

The faux pas would have done the airport’s image no good a day after Portuguese President Anibal Cavaco Silva was held up inside his plane for 20 minutes because the stepladder wouldn’t function.

Sanjay Prakash, CISF deputy commandant at the airport, confirmed that Spencer was questioned after he got off the London-Mumbai Virgin Atlantic flight.

“The X-ray check revealed a gun in his baggage,” a customs official said. “The passenger and his associate did not have any papers for the weapon. We then apprehended them for questioning.”

“During the questioning, only the associate spoke. Since he had a strong accent, there was difficulty in following him,” Prakash said.

Spencer, who was on a personal visit, did not get back his gun. “It will be sent back to Antigua,” the customs official said. “The liaison official-cum-bodyguard with Spencer said the matter would be taken up with the foreign ministry, but we haven’t heard from the ministry yet.”

The Portuguese President spent his confinement in a private airline’s jet laughing and joking with fellow passengers. Silva was on his way back home from Goa when the stepladder, owned by Cambata Aviation, India’s largest private ground-handling company, failed to work.

“The ladder hadn’t been properly oiled. We are looking into the matter,” Cambata’s airport manager, Hoshi Engineer, said.