Custom Search

Mighty Mouse Hijacks Giant Airliner
… Again

Charles Wilson

January 12^th 2012

In August a mouse grounded an SAS Airbus A330 due to take off for Chicago, from Stockholm’s Arlanda Airport. The flight staff were unable to catch the little critter forcing the airline to cancel the flight.

Now it has happened again, another Mighty Mouse has stopped a mighty jet airliner leaving Arlanda Airport, this time it was the New York flight.

It was an American mouse, spotted while the plane was flying over the Atlantic from New York. There was not much the flight crew could do at that stage, so they decided to do a thorough search of the plane after landing at Arlanda.

The determined SAS staff laid out mousetraps and left the plane hoping the mouse would scurry into one. Ten hours later they conceded defeat to the cunning little animal. SAS then decided to call in expert help. They flew the plane without passengers to Norway to see if their Norwegian staff could come up with a better plan.

At Oslo’s Gardemoen Airport the Norwegians laid out sticky mats since mousetraps obviously did not work with this particular mouse. Early the next morning they found the mouse stuck to one of the sticky mats.

The 200 passengers flying from Stockholm were booked onto other flights, and the passengers flying from Oslo left 24 hours late.

This was a particularly unlucky flight as the plane was delayed over two hours before it left New York as they had spotted a mouse on board already then. That mouse was found, but the second mouse was still hidden in the plane.

Mighty Mice and airplanes do not mix well. The mouse could have crawled in amongst cables and gnawed through a few strategically vital wires in the airliners electrical system.

In December 2006, eighty mice escaped from a passenger’s bag on a Saudi Arabian Airlines flight. Over 100 passengers were panic-stricken when the mice escaped at 28,000 ft and scampered around the cabin, some falling on passengers’ heads.

The flight landed safely and the owner of the mice was detained by police who were curious how he managed to get the mice onto the plane.

In June rats were found in a cabinet containing medical equipment including a defibrillator, by crew of a Qantas Boeing 747 jet while carrying out checks before take-off. The rats caused the Qantas flight to be grounded for more than a day.

In August an SAS spokesperson said it was the first time a mouse had been discovered on an SAS plane. If it continues at this rate SAS will soon have mouse catching as a routine.

Custom Search