Monday, February 19, 2007

Squirrel grounds plane

An American airlines flight was forced to make an unscheduled stop in Honolulu after the pilots heard the patter of tiny feet above their heads. The culprit? A pesky little squirrel.

The Boeing 777 and its 202 passengers were on route to Dallas when the rodent was discovered.

In an outpouring of technical jargon, John Hotard, spokesman for the Texas-based airline said: ‘You do not want a varmint up in the wiring areas and what-have-you on an airplane. You don’t want anything up there.’ Sound advice for us all.

It was feared the little ”varmint” might chew through the wiring and maybe cause some other problems so the plane was diverted.

Once grounded a crack team of highly trained state and federal agriculture and wildlife officials stormed the plane, set traps and captured the critter.

Having had it’s passport stamped in both Tokyo and New York before being found, Honolulu was to be the creatures last stop in more ways than one. Fearing it might be carrying rabies, and because it looked a bit shifty, the Eastern grey squirrel was killed by ‘the authorities’.

You’ll be pleased to know that all the passengers were safe and well and their flight was rescheduled. They also got to spend the night in a lovely hotel, so at least Mr. Squirrels death was not completely in vain.

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