Man smuggles monkey in a hat on plane

A MAN smuggled a monkey onto an plane, stashing the furry, fist-size primate under his hat until passengers spotted it perched on his ponytail, an airline official said.

The monkey escapade began in Lima, Peru, late on Monday, when the man boarded a flight to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in the US, said Spirit Airlines spokeswoman, Alison Russell.

After landing on Tuesday morning, the man waited several hours before catching a connecting flight to LaGuardia Airport in New York.

During the flight, passengers noticed that the marmoset, which normally lives in forests and eats fruit and insects, had emerged from underneath his hat, Ms Russell said.

The monkey spent the remainder of the flight in the man’s seat and behaved well, said Ms Russell, who didn’t know how it skirted customs and security.

Airport police were waiting for the man and his monkey when the plane landed, and the man was taken away for questioning. It was unclear whether he would face any criminal charges.

The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention was planning to take it for disease testing and keep it quarantined for 31 days, said a spokesman.

If the monkey is healthy it could wind up in a zoo.