Here’s a new one for the travel files. A humanoid robot named “Bebop” caused an hour-long delay on a Southwest Airlines flight from Oakland to San Diego in California.
The Southwest Airlines flight was supposed to take off from Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport for San Diego at 2 p.m. last week. However, the flight was delayed, as the pilot explained on the intercom, they were being held on the tarmac because of an “unusual passenger.”
Bebop, a 4-foot-tall, 70-pound humanoid robot, was on the plane legally. His handler, Eily Ben-Abraham of Elite Event Robotics, had purchased a ticket for the robot, so that wasn’t the problem. (Though it does bring up the question of how a robot was able to purchase a plane ticket.) Southwest Airlines spokesperson Lynn Lunsford confirmed to the San Francisco Chronicle that Bebop was a valid passenger…