Just when the fear of a boring Earth starts to take over, something like this (i.e. amazing) comes along. Airlines in Thailand are currently embroiled in a massive debate about purportedly "sentient" dolls, Death and Taxes reports. Known as "angel children," the dolls are blessed with an eternal spirit by Buddhist monks before apparently wreaking havoc on airplanes. As fate would have it, a growing number of passengers don't actually want to sit next to a sentient doll for the duration of a flight.
The dolls have recently achieved confirmed trend status in Thailand, the Bangkok Post reports, with a steadily increasing number of people bringing them aboard airplanes as if they were actual passengers. In fact, many passengers have been reported as actually ordering food and drinks for their respective dolls. Thus, the debate posits, should these purported passengers be able to possess a ticket of their own?
"The dolls will be initially classified as luggage, not passengers," a Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand official tells the Bangkok Post. "Based on international aviation rules, passengers are people. So airlines aren't allowed to sell tickets for dolls and assign a special code to the dolls." In addition to the whole issue of people not wanting to sit next to a sentient doll, airline officials have grown concerned about the possibility of increased drug smuggling.
For now, these would-be passengers must get a ticket under the name of their respective human counterpart unless they're cool with riding in the overhead compartment like a sad piece of luggage. Religious experts in the region, for their part, have opened an investigation into whether or not monks taking part in these purported rituals would qualify as a violation of the monastic code of conduct.
