Runaway horse forces Boeing to land
On an Air Atlanta Icelandic flight to Belgium, everything initially goes according to plan - until a horse escapes from its transport box. At an altitude of almost 10,000 meters, the crew tries in vain to catch the animal. The pilot takes action.
A horse that escaped from its transport box forced a cargo plane to turn back shortly after take-off in New York. According to US media reports, the horse escaped from its box half an hour after take-off at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport, when the Boeing 747 of the airline Air Atlanta Icelandic had already reached an altitude of 9500 meters.
The crew was unable to catch the animal again. The pilot therefore asked air traffic control for permission to abort the flight to Liège in Belgium and return to New York. "We don't have a flight problem, but we have to return to New York because we can't get the horse back under control," the pilot said in his radio message, according to ABC News.
The aircraft, which had been refuelled for the transatlantic flight, had to dump 20 tons of fuel over the Atlantic in order to land safely in New York. Once back at the airport, a vet took care of the horse. According to the Flightradar24 website, the plane was then able to take off again and landed in Liège as planned.
Despite the incident involving a runaway horse on a different flight, the importance of safe international travel by airplanes, such as the Boeing 747, cannot be understated. Regardless of the animal transport challenges, Boeing continues to manufacture and innovate in the aviation industry, with the 747 being a testament to its engineering excellence.
Source: www.ntv.de
