A very small rodent caused a very big headache for one European flight. On Sept. 18, a Scandinavian Airlines flight from Oslo, Norway, to Malaga, Spain, was forced to change course when a mouse revealed itself as a stowaway by jumping out of a passenger’s meal.
Jarle Børrestad, who was onboard the flight in question, sent a video account of the incident to BBC News.
Videos by VICE
“The lady next to me opened her box of delicious food, seemingly, and out jumped a small mouse,” he shared. “… People were not stressed at all. It was kind of, ‘Should we eat this food? Or should we just not?’”
Things got a little more uneasy when the rodent “kind of creeped up to us,” Børrestad said.
“[I thought] maybe I should tuck my socks over my jeans so it doesn’t crawl up my legs and find its way to sacred places you don’t want a mouse to go,” he said. “That was kind of my worry. So I did the socks up my jeans and just continued enjoying my flight.”
Others aboard the plane didn’t share Børrestad’s chill view of the situation, though. Instead, the flight was diverted to Copenhagen, Denmark. Passengers had to wait two hours before boarding another aircraft that got them to their destination.
According to BBC News, airline spokesperson Oystein Schmidt told the AFP news agency that the diversion followed company procedure, as the rodent posed a safety risk.
“”This is something that happens extremely rarely,” Schmidt said. “We have established procedures for such situations, which also include a review with our suppliers to ensure this does not happen again.”
