Well, there’s something you don’t expect to see at an airport check-in desk.
The man in the Speedos is Greig Bannatyne, and these photos were taken at an airport in Malawi where he was attempting to board a South African Airways flight.
He’d been taking part in a charity swim across nearby Lake Malawi – and, as he later told reporters, he’d forgotten to bring along a suitable change of clothes to travel home in.
His swimming teammates could, presumably, have lent him something more suitable to wear – but instead, they dared him to fly home in his swimming costume, and pledged to donate money to charity if he went through with it.
“It really spiralled from there with more and more of the swimmers and support crew pledging money if I attempted to fly home in my Speedos,” he said.
Bannatyne took the four-hour journey to the airport, still dressed from his sponsored swim.
“Immediately we had a security guard inform us that I could not enter like this,” he said. “After explaining that it was for charity he let us go past.
“We went through the first security point and checked in without much of an issue.
“There were lots of smiles and shaking of heads in laughter, the staff behind the check in counter were almost in tears and insisted that I needed an aisle seat so that everyone could see me on the plane.
However, he didn’t get as far as boarding the plane in his trunks.
“It was on my way to passport control that I was asked by the police a couple of questions.
‘They were very friendly and we went to a room where they were trying to understand what I was doing. Unfortunately as we didn’t have any official papers validating this they requested that I put my top and shorts on.”
However, his teammates nevertheless stumped up the money for charity, raising close to £2,000.
