You’ve heard of snakes on a plane, but how about hamsters?
A Portuguese airline was forced to ground one of its passenger planes last week after 132 hamsters broke free from their cages in the cargo hold and began running freely all over the aircraft, according to local media.
The TAP Air Portugal flight from Lisbon to Ponta Delgada Airport on Nov. 13 was carrying a full flight of passengers as well as a host of small animals en route to a pet store in the Azores. Along with the hamsters were ferrets and birds.
Upon arrival at its destination, baggage handlers opened up the cargo hold only to find the hamsters running amok.
Local news outlet Correio da Manhã reported that the hamsters had chewed through their carriers before going on the lam in the plane’s nooks and crannies.
There was a fear that the escaped rodents could chew through the plane’s electrical wires if left to run through the aircraft for too long.
Photos acquired by The Telegraph and the New York Post show one of the hamsters being held in a worker’s hand and another being pulled out from a corner of the airplane.
Workers spent four days scouring the plane for loose rodents. Once all 132 were recaptured the Airbus A320 finally returned to Lisbon on Sunday without passengers.
Correio da Manhã reports that the plane will undergo a thorough inspection to make sure the rodents did not cause any damage.