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Raccoon busts through ceiling at LaGuardia Airport next to Spirit Airlines gate
By
Liam Quigley
Published Nov 5, 2024
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JOHANNES EISELE/AFP via Getty Images
By
Liam Quigley
Published Nov 5, 2024
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A rogue raccoon tumbled from a ceiling next to a Spirit Airlines gate inside LaGuardia Airport’s Marine Air Terminal on Monday morning, sending discount airline flyers and staffers scrambling away from the raucous varmint.
The fracas was recorded in a video posted on X by user Ahmad Anonimis, which shows the bushy-tailed creature busting through a ceiling tile and dangling on a cord before falling to the ground.
"Dead a--, just seen a raccoon fall from the ceiling in LaGuardia Airport,” Ahmad tweeted, along with three skull emojis indicating the comic absurdity of what he had witnessed.
The video cuts to a group of people screaming while an alarm system blares and the frightened animal scurries for cover. The raccoon ran by the terminal’s TSA security checkpoint as a man in a green jacket attempted to trap it in a large transparent trash can, the video shows.
“This is both the most LaGuardia thing and the most Spirit Airlines thing to happen. Perfect,” wrote X user Kaitlynn Lwoso.
A Port Authority spokesperson said the raccoon was spotted between 8 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. — and was summarily captured and released outside of the terminal. Agency officials said they were further inspecting the building to prevent future raccoon infiltrations. A Spirit Airlines spokesperson said the company is “addressing the matter with a professional wildlife control company.”
It remained unclear on Tuesday how the raccoon entered the airport — and whether it was trying to catch a flight out of town ahead of Election Day.
At the turn of the 21st century, LaGuardia was known for its run-down passenger facilities and leaky ceilings. In 2014, when he was vice president, Joe Biden compared the airport to a “third-world country.”
The Port Authority over the following decade embarked on an ambitious overhaul of LaGuardia that wrapped in 2023, turning it into what Forbes last month deemed the country's "best airport."
But the renovation did not include an overhaul of the Marine Air Terminal — logistically called Terminal A — which is a city landmark listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The space has just six departure gates now occupied by the cut-rate Spirit and Frontier airlines. The terminal is known for its small size, which typically allows for a quick trip through its security checkpoint.
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Liam Quigley
Liam Quigley is a reporter covering parks & sanitation for Gothamist and WNYC. Got a tip? Email [email protected]
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