A British Airways Heathrow-New York flight had to be cancelled when crew were unable to remove a blackbird from the cockpit.
Cabin crew spent ‘several hours’ trying to remove the creature, including using a recording of birds in distress to try to scare it away, according to reports.
But the frightened bird hid and could not be found, so the decision was made to cancel the flight, on Monday, and transfer passengers to a later departure.
One passenger told the Guardian passengers were kept informed about what was happening, with regular updates by the captain, such as "Our feathered friend is still at large," and "If you happen to hear strange noises, please do not be alarmed".
BA said: "When it comes to flying, we’re the experts, so it’s not surprising this bird wanted to hitch a ride on one of our 12 daily flights to New York. We could not help him out this time, but after a short delay we made sure our non-feathered customers got to the Big Apple as soon as we could."
