Rogue rodent keeps US SAS flight grounded
Once again a small mouse, discovered aboard a flight between New York and Stockholm, has grounded a US-bound Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) flight, forcing 200 passengers to re-book to later departures.
”Staff spotted the mouse during the journey over from New York. We took the decision to ground the plane as soon as we heard,” SAS spokesperson Anders Lindström confirmed to The Local.
The Airbus landed at Arlanda at 8.15am and was scheduled to leave again by 10.40.
But by early afternoon the mischievous mouse was still taking the mickey out of its would-be captors and the plane could not be permitted to leave Sweden.
According to Lindström it isn't always easy to locate a stowaway mouse.
”We place traps inside the aircraft and then we shut it down completely. We need to leave it standing for a while so that the mouse can traipse about freely. Otherwise it ends up going into hiding,” Lindström said.
According to SAS, they have successfully managed to rebook all passengers into later flights. The infested aircraft, however, is going nowhere.
”We are working hard to try to find the mouse but until we have done, the plane is grounded,” said Lindström.
Although it isn't that uncommon for mice to sneak aboard aircraft, it is only the second time it has happened to SAS.
The first time was in August 2011 when some 200 passengers were left stranded in Stockholm for hours.
Despite SAS staff never capturing the cunning critter last summer, Lindström is confident this is not the same mouse. Where it originally boarded the flight is shrouded in mystery.
”We haven't been able to determine the mouse's nationality,” he said.
However, they are pretty sure it is a ”yank” jumping ship.
”It probably got tired of the US,” Lindström told The Local.
Update:
On Wednesday evening an exasperated SAS finally sought Norwegian mousetrap expertise to snare the ticketless traveller.
An Oslo glue trap later snared the stowaway on Thursday morning, Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet reported, enabling the plane to depart for New York on schedule.
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”Staff spotted the mouse during the journey over from New York. We took the decision to ground the plane as soon as we heard,” SAS spokesperson Anders Lindström confirmed to The Local.
The Airbus landed at Arlanda at 8.15am and was scheduled to leave again by 10.40.
But by early afternoon the mischievous mouse was still taking the mickey out of its would-be captors and the plane could not be permitted to leave Sweden.
According to Lindström it isn't always easy to locate a stowaway mouse.
”We place traps inside the aircraft and then we shut it down completely. We need to leave it standing for a while so that the mouse can traipse about freely. Otherwise it ends up going into hiding,” Lindström said.
According to SAS, they have successfully managed to rebook all passengers into later flights. The infested aircraft, however, is going nowhere.
”We are working hard to try to find the mouse but until we have done, the plane is grounded,” said Lindström.
Although it isn't that uncommon for mice to sneak aboard aircraft, it is only the second time it has happened to SAS.
The first time was in August 2011 when some 200 passengers were left stranded in Stockholm for hours.
Despite SAS staff never capturing the cunning critter last summer, Lindström is confident this is not the same mouse. Where it originally boarded the flight is shrouded in mystery.
”We haven't been able to determine the mouse's nationality,” he said.
However, they are pretty sure it is a ”yank” jumping ship.
”It probably got tired of the US,” Lindström told The Local.
Update:
On Wednesday evening an exasperated SAS finally sought Norwegian mousetrap expertise to snare the ticketless traveller.
An Oslo glue trap later snared the stowaway on Thursday morning, Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet reported, enabling the plane to depart for New York on schedule.
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