Pilots of American Airlines Flight 176 heard something skittering in the wire-strewn space over the cockpit of their Boeing 777 while flying across the Pacific. What was causing it?
The pilots diverted the Tokyo-Dallas flight to Honolulu. The plane made an emergency landing.
The problem was a squirrel.
“You do not want a varmint up in the wiring areas and what-have-you on an airplane. You don’t want anything up there,” said AA spokesman John Hotard.
He told AP that pilots were concerned the “varmint” could gnaw through the aircraft’s wiring or cause other problems.
“So, as a precaution, we diverted,” Hotard explained.
AA officials say they don’t know how or where the squirrel boarded the flight.
Flight 176’s 208 customers were ultimately rebooked to their final destinations.
As for the squirrel, Hawaii was his final destination. Authorities feared rabies and had the rodent killed.
Report by David Wilkening
