“It escaped from the box”: A runaway horse forces the plane to return

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An Icelandic Air Atlanta plane was en route from New York to Belgium last Thursday. But after 90 minutes the cargo plane had to return. The reason: a horse escaped on board.

“We have a live animal, a horse, on board the plane,” the pilot said in a recorded message. “The horse managed to escape from its box. We are unable to secure the horse,” he continued.

Although everything was fine with the plane, the crew took care of the horse. According to ‘aerotelegraph’, moving such a heavy load can cause the aircraft to vibrate – after all, a horse weighs up to 800 kilograms. Moreover, the nervous animal could have injured the crew.

After the plane returned, air traffic control at JFK Airport asked if the pilot needed assistance. “Down, negative,” he replied. “On the asphalt, yes. We have a horse in trouble.” It is unclear how and why the animal broke out of its box. According to the BBC, it is possible that the animal was bothered by the box size. After all, there are also different sizes for horses.

The plane was able to take off the same day without a horse and arrived at Liège airport on Friday morning. The animal was taken to a doctor.

Crocodile crashed flight

It is not the first time that an animal has escaped from its cage during a flight. In August, a bear escaped from its crate on an Iraqi Airways flight from Dubai to Baghdad, AP reported.

In 2010, there was an even more dramatic case: a passenger smuggled a crocodile onto a plane in the Democratic Republic of Congo. During the flight, the animal escaped from the passenger’s bag and caused panic. The passengers ran towards the cockpit. The weight shift led to the crash, which killed twenty passengers. (jwg)

Source: Blick