- A Scandinavian Airlines flight was diverted after a mouse jumped out of a meal tray.
- The Oslo to Malaga flight landed in Copenhagen for safety reasons.
- SAS said it had procedures for such incidents and was now reviewing supplier processes.
A passenger jet was diverted after a mouse jumped out of a passenger’s meal tray during the food service.
The Scandinavian Airlines Airbus A320 from Oslo, Norway to Malaga in Spain landed in Copenhagen, the Danish capital, following the incident last week.
Vermin pose a threat to aircraft safety because they could chew through wiring.
An SAS representative told Business Insider: “We made a very normal landing in Copenhagen in order to change aircraft and catering, which is a fully normal procedure when a rodent is found onboard.
“In these cases, we have very clear procedures to follow, including full inspection of the aircraft and of all our suppliers’ processes to see what needs to be improved or changed in order to avoid scenarios like these. This inspection and investigation are now initiated.”
Passengers were moved to another plane and continued their journey, landing in Malaga about two and a half hours behind schedule, the Aviation Herald reported.
It’s certainly not the first time rodents have snuck on board a passenger jet.
In 2019, an Air India flight was delayed for about 12 hours when a rat was spotted in the cabin.
In March 2017 a British Airways flight from London Heathrow to San Francisco was delayed by about four hours after a mouse was seen in the cabin, BBC News reported.
And in 2013, Chinese quarantine workers found 10 newborn rats living under a seat in the business class cabin of a plane from Hong Kong.