Moose hunt ends at Ryanair check-in desk

A policeman flying to a moose hunt in Sweden was forced to cut his trip short at Stansted airport when airline officials found out he had his hunting rifle as luggage.

The hunter had checked in the rifle at the airport in the Austrian town of Klagenfurt and flew with Ryanair to Stansted, where he was to catch another flight to Sweden.

But after airline officials learned about the rifle, they refused to let the Austrian continue the journey.

“Ryanair has an explicit policy that forbids the checking in of hunting weapons,” airline supervisor Thomas Pfandl said. “Our customers accept this policy when they make their internet bookings.”

The 36-year-old hunter had to book a new trip home from London. That ticket cost cost almost €1,000 and the unnamed policeman told an Austrian newspaper he planned to sue the airline for compensation.

He argued that Ryanair should not have let him check in at Klagenfurt airport in the first place.

“That was definitely an error by the check-in agent,” Pfandl told the Kleine Zeitung newspaper. “But the passenger should have told the agent about the explosive luggage – and he did not.”

Pfandl argued the hunter would have little success in a lawsuit because he had accepted the company’s terms when he made the booking.