Rat holds AI flight hostage

Its not just the pilots who are holding Air India hostage. Early on Saturday at the Rajasansi International Airport in Amritsar,passengers of an Air India flight to Toronto....

Its not just the pilots who are holding Air India hostage.

Early on Saturday at the Rajasansi International Airport in Amritsar,passengers of an Air India flight to Toronto were walking up the aerobridge to the aircraft when the staff noticed someone jump the queue and scurry into the plane. It was a rat. For the next several hours,authorities of Air India and the Airport Authority of India played a cat-and-mouse game,trying to hunt down the rat,while harried passengers waited for an alternative flight. And when that flight finally came from Delhi,it developed a snag and remained stuck on the runway for more than two hours. By the time the alternative plane finally took off at 5.35 p.m.,the 243 passengers had already waited for more than 11 hoursthe original flight was scheduled for 6.35 a.m.

Even after the plane had left for Toronto,authorities were searching flight no AI-187 for the rat,which,aviation experts said,could have proved deadly if it had been on board. The rat could have damaged important instruments or wiring in the plane,leading to a mid-air catastrophe, said a flight expert. The airport was not even equipped with a fumigating machine and the hunt had to be done manually.

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The rat apparently jumped into the plane while passengers were boarding the plane from aerobridge no.5. We are trying hard to find the creature that has caused so much commotion, said an AAI official.

When the plane was taxied,some of our staff members on board saw the rat jumping into the aircraft. They told the security staff and we stopped the flight, said Air India Manager Ashwani Arora.

We have requisitioned a fumigating machine and the rat will be found, said an optimistic Chinson Parakal,AAI (Amritsar) Director. Airport authorities even discussed using a cat to hunt for the rat but the idea was dropped after experts did not approve of the method. He said he was waiting for statements from security and AI staff after catching the rat.

The passengers who waited over 11 hours were agitated. I arrived at the airport at four in the morning. The security and general staff must be cautious so that such incidents do not happen, said Jaswinder Singh Rai,a passenger from Hoshiarpur.

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Officials,however,said there was no way they could have flown the aircraft without a full-fledged security check as per the guidelines of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.

A few years ago,at the same airport,a dog had strayed on to the runway and a few months ago,a part of the ceiling had dropped on to waiting passengers.

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