A woman on a flight from Oslo, the capital of Norway, had to make an emergency landing after finding a live mouse in her in-flight meal. On Wednesday, the Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) plane scheduled to arrive in Malaga, Spain, had to be rerouted to Copenhagen, Denmark. The airline cited the rodent as a “safety risk,” hence the diversion was necessary, according to a spokesman who spoke to AFP News agency.
The passengers were eventually taken to their original destination on an alternate aircraft after the emergency landing. Following the startling event, Jarle Borrestad—who happened to be sitting next to the woman who found a mouse in her food—described the experience on Facebook.
“Believe it or not. A lady next to me at SAS opened the food and jumped a mouse out. Now we have turned around and landed at CPH [Copenhagen Airport] for flight changes,” the passenger wrote. Borrestad also told BBC News that the situation was not too dramatic and that people “were not stressed at all.”
Regarding rodents on board, SAS spokesperson Oystein Schmidt clarified that the airline has stringent policies because of the possibility of electrical wires being chewed through.
“This is something that happens extremely rarely,” Schmidt said. “We have established procedures for such situations, including a review with our suppliers to ensure this does not happen again.”
This comes after a Delta Air Lines flight encountered pressurisation problems over 10,000 feet, necessitating an emergency landing. Several passengers suffered from nose and ear bleeds as a result of the incident, and at least ten of them needed medical attention. The Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) declared that it is looking into the matter as the airlines apologised.