Germany: Lufthansa apologizes for lost Oscar statuette

Germany's flagship carrier Lufthansa said on Friday it had found an Oscar statuette belonging to Pavel Talankin, the Russian director who won best documentary this year for "Mr. Nobody Against Putin," which had been lost while he flew with the airline from New York to Frankfurt on Thursday.

Lufthansa offered its "regret" over the incident, saying it had embarked on an internal search "with the utmost care and urgency" to recover the Oscar.

Hours later, the airline issued a new statement saying that "we can confirm that the Oscar statuette is now in our care in Frankfurt" and it was going to hand it back to Talankin "as quickly as possible."

Lusthansa did not offer an explanation for how the prestigious award went missing on its aircraft, saying that "an internal review of how this occurred is currently still ongoing."

"We sincerely regret the inconvenience caused and have apologized to the owner," Lufthansa said.

TSA banned Oscar from cabin

The statuette went missing after Talankin was forced to check the award into hold luggage on a flight from New York to Germany.

TSA, US airport security, prevented the filmmaker from taking the statuette on the plane, saying it could be used as a weapon.

When Talankin arrived in Frankfurt, the box it had been placed in was not found.

Speaking ​to the online magazine Deadline after arriving in Germany on Thursday, Talankin said it was "completely baffling how they ​consider an Oscar a ‌weapon."

The 35-year-old videographer said he had brought the trophy with him into the cabin on previous flights on various airlines he had flown with "and there never was any kind of problem." 

Talankin's documentary was based on footage that he gathered at a school where he ⁠worked in Russia's Chelyabinsk region ​to show how students were exposed to pro-war messaging. He fled Russia in 2024.

Edited by: Dmytro Hubenko