Woman Flying Home From Bangkok Finds Something ‘Scary’ In Luggage

A woman who flew from Thailand to the U.K. over the summer is urging travelers to stay vigilant after finding something alarming in her suitcase.
Julia Golovniova from East Sussex is an avid traveler who regularly posts about her adventures on TikTok and Instagram under the handle roaminginsunshine. However, a recent trip to Thailand proved memorable for altogether unwanted reasons.
Thailand has some of the strictest laws when it comes to drug use, possession and trafficking. On its website, the U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office warns: “Possessing small quantities of illegal substances can lead to heavy fines or imprisonment. Possessing Class A drugs can lead to the death penalty.”
So you can only imagine what Golovniova must have felt when, while unpacking her suitcase back home, she made an alarming discovery. “I found some white tablets in a clear plastic glove, all in the bottom of one finger of the glove,” she told Newsweek. “It was deep within my suitcase buried in my dirty clothes.”
Golovniova has “no idea” what the tablets were. “They have no markings on them, just five pure white tablets,” she said. The discovery nevertheless left her feeling uneasy. “I was shocked when I first found it unpacking at home, it felt really scary that somehow someone had either accidentally or intentionally put it in my suitcase and I traveled unaware that something I hadn’t packed was in there,” she said.
Golovniova acknowledges it “could be nothing dangerous” but would still like answers. She has disposed of the tablets and is just thankful her bag was not checked at Oslo or Gatwick, where it might have resulted in further issues.
She flew from the island of Koh Samui to Bangkok on August 22 with Bangkok Airways before flying on to Oslo with Norse Atlantic Airways on August 25. The final leg of her journey was with Norwegian Airways and a flight that brought her back home to London Gatwick on August 26.
Golovniova has no idea when it might have gotten in her bag though suspects it might have occurred when traveling from Koh Samui to Bangkok, due to an incident that occurred involving her bag.
“I had stupidly left a power bank in my suitcase and so when we got to baggage collection at Bangkok, two men were holding a sign with my name on and asked me to follow them to their office,” she said.
“They said that there was a power bank in my suitcase and so it needed to be searched which they needed my permission for. The bag had not made it onto the plane at Koh Samui and had been held back till I gave my permission.”
Golovniova said she had to sign a form giving the Thai authorities permission to search her bag. She also had to pay 500 Thai baht for it to be delivered to her hotel in Bangkok the next day once it had been searched and put on another flight.”
Newsweek reached out to Bangkok Airways on several occasions for comment on what happened.
Sheldon Jacobson is a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has worked on aviation security for over 25 years. His research provided the technical foundations for TSA PreCheck.
When Newsweek shared the details of Golovniova’s experience with Jacobson, he was keen to offer reassurance. “It is unfortunate that the woman did not take the bag’s content to a lab or university chemistry department to have it analyzed. I am sure that the substance is benign, or other issues would have come up,” he told Newsweek.
“Clearly a person searched the bag with gloves on. They may have used the same gloves with different bags, and one bag had some tablets. They then flipped the inside/outside of the gloves so the powder was now on their fingers, not touching the new bag content. They then took off the gloves and inadvertently it fell into the woman’s bag.” In his view what happened was little more than a “benign mishap.”
However, Golovniova believes there is a lesson to be had from what happened. “Be more aware of what is in your suitcase especially if traveling to multiple locations. Check the contents of your bag thoroughly before flying on to your next destination and never agree to your bag being searched without being present,” she said.
“Once you check your bag in, you are no longer in control of what could potentially be in your bag even if you have put locks on it so it’s definitely preferable to have your bag wrapped or consider hand luggage only.”