Air India’s US-bound flight was delayed by over nine hours after a rat was reportedly spotted on the plane on Sunday. The flight was taxiing at the Indira Gandhi International airport when the rap was spotted. As a part of the safety procedure, the Boeing 777 had to be brought back to the terminal and sterilized.
The plane with new crew members and 206 passengers that was initially supposed to take off at 2:30 am finally took off around noon. Air India’s chairman Rajiv Bansal has taken cognisance of the situation and has demanded a detailed report of how the rodent managed to enter the plane. HE also sought a solution to avoid such instances in the future.
It took over 6 hours to sterilised the entire aircraft. Following which, the authorities took another few hours to look for 2 commanders and two co-pilots for the plane. A senior official stated that the authorities had to take the necessary steps because a rat being on the plane could cause massive damages.
Rats on board an aircraft can lead to a catastrophe if they start chewing up electric wires of a plane. If that happens, pilots will have no control on any system on board leading to a disaster,” a senior commander was quoted as saying.
Speaking about how the rat could have got on the aircraft, an official explained that the passengers often drop food on the floor which attracts rats. Also, rats follow the food storage cases a number of times. “This is a universal phenomenon. Rats follow the large storage cases in which food trays are kept. The catering vans are like a home for them as food keeps getting dropped. Rats get on the high lifts that take those storage cases to aircraft and then remain there. This happens across the world,” an official said.
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Source: Times Of India
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