Aircraft culinary escape: Mouse exits from in-flight meal dispenser
Unbelievable incident during a planned trip from Oslo to Malaga. The flight team served meals, only for a mouse to emerge from one of the packed meals. Consequently, the aircraft made an unexpected stop in Denmark. This information was shared by Norwegian NRK, who spoke to a passenger on the flight. In a Facebook post, Norwegian Jarle Børrestad reported that the rodent leaped out of the meal's packaging when his fellow passenger was opening it. The SAS plane was en route to Malaga on a Wednesday.
"There was no chaos, but personally, I drew my socks over my trousers. I didn't want the mouse to leap onto me and climb into my pants," Børrestad recounted to NRK. "I spoke to the flight attendant who works here, and she confessed she hadn't encountered anything like this in her 40-year stint as a cabin crew member."
According to NRK, the plane was traversing German airspace when passengers noticed the mouse. Not long afterwards, passengers were alerted via the public address system that there was a potential safety threat, leading the plane to perform a U-turn and land in Copenhagen. A SAS representative substantiated this to the newspaper "Fædrelandsvennen". Apparently, this is the ordinary protocol if there's an infestation on board. As per NRK's reports, passengers arrived at their southern Spanish destination around two and a half hours behind schedule.
Mice and rats seldom make an appearance in aircraft, but they can pose a considerable threat in aviation as they can damage electrical wiring in the aircraft.
The SAS plane, initially heading to Malaga in Spain, was currently over German airspace when the mouse was discovered. Despite the unusual situation, the flight did not continue its journey and instead made an unexpected stop in Copenhagen.
