A rat and a dog hold up two AI flights in a day

An Air India flight that had taken off from Mumbai for London on Wednesday returned to Mumbai due to a “suspected” sighting of a rat on board. In another incident, an Air India Express plane that was moving slowly from the taxiway for eventual take-off at Amritsar, stopped in its tracks and moved back after the pilot sighted a dog on the runway, sources said. The plane was scheduled to fly to Sharjah.

So far as the incident of rodent sighting was concerned on the Mumbai-London flight, Air India issued a statement, saying, “AI-131, Mumbai to London (flight) returned to Mumbai today due to suspected rat sighting. Though the presence of the rodent was not confirmed, but keeping passenger safety in mind, the aircraft was brought back. Our engineering team is investigating the incident. A standby aircraft was made available to fly the passengers to London. The aircraft with the suspected rodent will be fumigated as per procedure in such cases of rodent sighting.”

In Amritsar, a dog appeared on the runway when the plane was taxiing forcing the pilot to abort the take-off at Rajasansi international airport. An official at the airport said the dog appeared before the front tyre of Amritsar-Dubai Air India Express Flight at around 3.10 pm when plane was taxiing to the runway for take-off.

The pilot applied the emergency brakes and brought the plane back to the bay, the official said. All the 171 passengers were deplaned and a thorough technical checkup of the aircraft was carried out, especially the breaks pressure and position of engine mountings.

After carrying out the necessary check-ups, the plane took off at 7.13 pm for its destination, after four hours of delay.