London-bound passenger plane returns to India after 'rat is seen on board'

Rodent: A file image of an Air India plane
Kurush Pawar/Creative Commons licence CC BY-SA 2.0
Jamie Bullen30 December 2015

A passenger plane bound for London from India was reportedly forced to return to Mumbai when a rat was spotted on board.

The Air India 131 flight was flying over Tehran, three hours after leaving the runway, when the rodent was seen in a cabin on Wednesday morning.

The pilot decided to return to Mumbai as continuing the journey to London would have meant another hour of flying.

A standby aircraft flew passengers to London when the flight returned to India.

In a statement Air India said: “AI-131, Mumbai to London (flight) returned to Mumbai on Wednesday 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 May, the airline was forced to ground one of its planes after rats were spotted on board.

The Airbus A320 was removed from service to be fumigated after it landed in Leh, a city in the Himalayas district in northern India.

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