A bloke who was flying home from a holiday said the Virgin Mary appeared to him twice on his Ryanair flight, because a man smuggled a six foot statue onto the plane.
The 27-year-old from Belfast, who preferred to remain anonymous, had been in Croatia with his girlfriend for two weeks and was flying from Dubrovnik back to Dublin on August 2.
His flight was almost three hours late leaving the tarmac at Dubrovnik Airport and Ryanair staff were in a rush to board people so the company could "conveniently" avoid forking out compensation, he said.
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With just 10 minutes to spare, everyone was boarded, including the Virgin Mary.
"I've never seen a plane boarded so fast," the man told the Daily Star.
"I also noticed the fella in the line with what looked like a five to six foot statue of the Virgin Mary and somehow he just walked right onto the plane with it and no one said anything."
The man said the older gentleman, who looked to be in his mid fifties, sat in the middle of a row and plonked his holy relic down at the coveted window seat.
"Fair play to him, I was stuck in the middle and Mary got a window," he continued.
"He didn't even have a seat booked, he just sat it there hoping for the best. And eventually a flight attendant saw it and said 'no sir, you can't have that there'."
It transpired that a father and his child who sat down beside the young man and his girlfriend did so because Mary was in their seat.
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The father was told to return to his booked seat but responded that "I would but there's a statue of Mary in it."
The young man said the staff took the huge statue off the plane and put it in the cargo hold.
Technically it would have to fit under the seat in front of him for it to be allowed, or be able to be stowed in an overhead locker. And definitely not in someone else's seat.
"The whole plane were laughing at this situation, it was hilarious," he added.
"I'm not sure how it got on the plane in the first place, probably because the gate staff were rushing so much so people didn't get compensation."
The man said to add insult to injury he had to pay €46 on the way over to Croatia because he brought a bag that didn't fit under the seat.
"But somehow this fella can get a six foot statue into the plane," he said, seeing the humourous side.
When he saw the older gentleman before passport control in Dublin Airport, he had two statues.
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"That was the best part," the man said.
"One was obviously under the plane and he somehow got the other one on."
The man tried to get compensation from Ryanair but was told because they were just 10 minutes shy of three hours he could not.
"We should have tried to slow down boarding to get our money back, but even the statue couldn't do that," he joked.
Asked why he thinks the man had such seemingly random luggage, the bloke joked: "God only knows."
It's likely that the older gentleman was making a pilgrimage to one of the religious sites in the region, perhaps Međugorje in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared several times.
Ryanair have been contacted for comment.
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