Stowaway Rat Delays Flight to Toronto

 

Tamara Baluja Staff Reporter

Published On Sun Sep 27 2009

An unlisted passenger on an Air India flight from Amritsar, India to Toronto via London caused an 11-hour delay yesterday.

A rat was seen on board Flight 187 by some passengers boarding at the Raja Sansi International Airport, said Harry Francis, Canadian manager of Air India.

Security staff played a cat-and-mouse game trying to catch the rodent, to no avail. Eventually, the aircraft was sidelined for a thorough check and flyers faced a delay at Amritsar until a relief aircraft was rounded up.

"Passengers had to wait for a plane to be flown in from Mumbai," said Francis.

The flight scheduled to take off at 6:35 a.m. finally did so at 5:30 p.m., with the arrival in Toronto scheduled for about 9 1/2 hours behind time.

"Of course, we apologized to all the passengers," said Francis.

He wouldn't speculate how the rat got onto the plane.

"This isn't common, but it has happened before. It can happen to any airline," he said.

Several other Air India flights were grounded Saturday after some pilots went on strike over salary cuts, according to Times of India.

With files from Star wire services