rat on plane

Chinese Airliner Forced to Land… After Finding a Live Rat on Board

Concerns over disease and cable chewing

It likely won’t be enough to become the premise of a movie (let alone an R-rated one), but a rat on a plane was enough to force a Chinese airliner to land after its discovery last week.

Loong Air flight GJ8823 had left Hangzhou and was headed towards Xishuangbanna, Yunnan when the rat was discovered, the airliner said on its official microblog.

It’s not clear how the rat got on board the airline. Loong Air confirmed that the rat was not a pet that belonged to one of its passengers, while Xinhua cited sources saying the rodent may have followed the supply line of catering trucks for the plane.

Forcing a plane to land is usually done in cases of potentially life-threatening malfunctions and emergencies, but the airline wasn’t going to take any chances in this case.

“Considering the threat to passenger health posed by the rat and the possibility of endangering flight safety by biting through wires, the captain flew back to port in the best interests of public health and safety,” said Loong Air in a statement.

The plane was fumigated and disinfected upon landing. A news photo apparently shows the stowaway rat being caught in a glue trap.

It’s not the first time rats have been found on a plane going to or from China. Eight mice, some alive and some dead, were found on a  United Airlines’ flight from Washington to Beijing in 2008. In 2013, 11 mice were found underneath a business class seat on a flight from Hong Kong to Xiamen. And just last September, a mouse was caught on a Finnish airliner after flying to Chongqing.

We’d think rats would be more interested in a maze with cheese at the end rather than an airliner packed with peanuts, but it looks like there’s no getting rid of these monkey-fighting rats on these Monday to Friday flights.

Charles Liu

The Nanfang's Senior Editor