Discovery was made during routine stopover in flight; culprit evaded capture until the following morning
CELINE GE
UPDATED : Sunday, 27 March, 2016, 6:00pm
The Shenzhen-bound passengers had an unscheduled 18-hour stopover in Yantai, thanks to a stowaway rodent. Photo: Qq.com
Passengers’ ratty behaviour is known to occasionally disrupt domestic flights in China but travellers had their journey disrupted for more than 18 hours on the weekend by a real rodent, mainland media reports.
Passengers flying from Changchun, in Jilin province, to the southern city of Shenzhen were told the flight was barred from proceeding further following a scheduled stop in Yantai, Shandong province, on Friday night when the unwelcome stowaway was discovered on board the plane, the Changchun-based newspaper Xinwenhua reported on Sunday.
As a result, all passengers were ordered to disembark with all their luggage to make space for crew members to carry out the rat hunt.
The flight, which was scheduled to arrive in Shenzhen a few hours after its departure, was delayed in Yantai overnight and grounded until the next afternoon when the rat was captured, according to the newspaper report.
“At first, the crew didn’t tell us why we’d been taken off the plane, but later they told us there was a rat on the flight that had chewed wires in the aircraft,” a passenger named Yu told Xinwenhua.
She added that she felt scared by the announcement, which raised concerns about the airline’s management.
How could a mouse appear on a plane? This could have posed a huge threat to our safety,” she said.
Yu and the other passengers were offered 400 yuan (HK$480) in compensation and stayed at a nearby hotel arranged by the carrier, Shenzhen Airlines.
How one Changchun-based newspaper cartoonist saw the incident. Graphic: Xinwenhua
“Among the passengers were a group of about 30 people travelling to Hong Kong to attend a conference, and a family of five travelling to Southeast Asia,” Yu said.
“A man aged about 50 even had a heart attack while arguing with the ground crew in Yantai.”
Once given the all clear, the flight left Yantai on Saturday morning and arrived in Shenzhen in the afternoon.
It still remained unclear how, where and when the rat sneaked onto the aircraft, airport staff said in Changchun, Yantai and Shenzhen where the flight had previously landed.
China’s civil aviation regulations prohibit flights from proceeding if rats or other animals are found on board and can only continue after they are caught.
http://m.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/1931133/stowaway-rodent-causes-flight-china-be-delayed-18-hours
