Rats 'run amok' on Air India plane: Flight diverted
An Air India flight has been grounded after flight attendants spotted 'scores' of rats running around in the cabin.
Flight AI021 was travelling from Calcutta to New Delhi when staff spotted the rodents running amok in the plane's cabin, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.
The plane landed safely at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Dehli, where passengers disembarked and the flight was immediately taken out of service.
A senior commander said the sighting of just one rat means the plane has to be fumigated and poses a serious risk to the flight.
According to the Belfast Telegraph, the commander said: "Rats on board an aircraft can lead to a catastrophe if they start chewing up electric wires of a fly by wire plane.
"If that happens, pilots will have no control on any system on board leading to a disaster."
Speaking to the Times of India, an unnamed Air India official said that rat infestation was a "common phenomenon" on planes around the world.
He said: "This is a universal phenomenon. Rats follow the large storage cases in which food trays are kept. The catering vans are like a home for them as food keeps getting dropped.Rats get on the high lift that takes these storage cases to aircraft and then remain there. This happens across the world."
However, a spokesman for Air India denied the number of rats being reported, and told the Wall Street Journal only one rat had been spotted on the aircraft.
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