Ryanair held up by a soft toy

This made me laugh. According to La Repubblica today [1], a Ryanair flight out of Rome's Ciampino airport was held up for 2 hours on account of a soft toy, to wit one massive soft crocodile, so large that it stretched out over 3 seats. Quite how the passenger got such a large toy on as 'hand luggage' is a mystery only Ciampino security could answer, but when she did and laid it out on seats in the passenger cabin, a flight attendant told her that she couldn't take such a monstrosity on board, and that it would have to be left on the ground. Quite why isn't clear from the report - plainly there were free seats to put the croc on, and even in the event of a crash an unsecured soft toy is unlikely to cause any damage to fellow passengers. Neither was it any kind of security threat. Unsurprisingly, the toy's 'mistress' ("padrona") protested vigorously and refused to budge either herself or the crocodile, which led to the aircraft's departure being delayed for some 2 hours whilst the plane crew, then customs officers, remonstrated with the passenger, as well as a faction of the other passengers who, not unnaturally, wanted to take off for Milan - amusingly, the report notes that the passengers divided into two factions, pro- and anti-soft toy (I know which side I'd have been on :o)).

The impasse was finally broken by a nun who calmly negotiated with the crew, cops and recalcitrant passenger, and eventually persuaded her to get off the plane with the offending soft toy, after which the aircraft took off.

[1] Ciampino, due ore di retardi per un peluche, La Repubblica online, 27/11/007