London flight delayed after ‘rat’ is sighted on board
Rodent trouble caused the turnaround of an Air India flight to London, resulting in a delay of several hours for more than 200 passengers.
A ‘suspected rat sighting’ by a passenger was made three hours into the flight and the pilot returned to Mumbai ‘keeping passenger safety in mind’, Air India said.
The rodent was not spotted by crew but the airline took no chances due to passenger concerns.
"Air India gives utmost importance to safety. Our engineering team is investigating the incident," an airline statement said.
"A standby aircraft was made available to fly the passengers to London. The aircraft with the suspected rodent will be fumigated as per procedure in such cases of rodent sighting."
In July a similar incident occurred when an Air India flight headed for Milan turned back to Delhi after a suspected rat sighting.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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