Rats! AI flight held up again

New Delhi: It might be a chooha, but on Wednesday just one rat was enough to delay an international flight by over three hours.
The trouble happened with Air India AI 111 that flies on the Mumbai-Delhi-London sector that could not take off till the rodent was deplaned.
"An elderly passenger was being taken inside the plane on a wheelchair. A rat perhaps was in the lower cavity of the chair and it also entered the plane.
A few minutes later the rat was spotted and then it could not take off till the rodent was deplaned. In such circumstances a plane has to be completely fumigated to kill the rodent on board, a process that can take over four hours.If the plane happens to be jumbo, which AI 111 was, the time taken for the kill could be even more. Luckily for passengers, the rat was spotted in the Boeing 747-400, then captured by hand and thrown out in an operation that lasted over two hours. Finally, the flight took off for London around 10.30 am.
01/03/07 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: Air India Mar 2007, Safety Mar 2007