A TAP Air Portugal Airbus A320neo was grounded for five days by an invasion of illegal rodents. 132 hamsters, real furry commandos, transformed the plane's hold into their playground, defying capture attempts by teams on the ground for nearly a week.
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An Airbus A320neo found itself grounded for five days due to… hamsters.
The information was revealed by the Portuguese daily Correio da Manga. 132 of these small rodents managed to escape from their cages installed in the hold.
Maintenance workers have managed to catch up and capture the majority of the electrical cable eaters since their escape on Tuesday November 12, 2024, but 16 of them are still at large in the wild.
Baggage handlers discovered that the cages the animals were in had been damaged and that 132 of them were wandering in the hold when the Airbus 320neo landed in Ponta Delgada, capital of the Azores archipelago, on the island of Sao Miguel.
The search began after the passengers on board the plane disembarked and their luggage was collected. The hamsters were part of a delivery to a pet store on the island, which also included ferrets and birds.
According to the Portuguese daily, the animals had been accepted on the flight after having been rejected from a previous aircraft, because the cages “did not meet accepted standards”.
The plane finally returned to Lisbon on Sunday November 17, 2024.
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