Emergency landings are made for a variety of reasons, some due to a passenger’s health and some due to a problem with the aircraft. Then there are ones like these where something like a live mouse is on the loose.
A Mouse Came Out of an In-Flight Meal, Causing a Diversion
Scandinavian Airlines flight 4683 from Oslo to Malaga was forced to divert to Copenhagen on September 18. The reason for the diversion? A boxed meal served to a passenger had another little passenger inside of it – a live mouse. When the food box was opened, the mouse climbed out. The passenger next to this unfortunate passenger said he immediately tucked his pants into his socks to keep the mouse from climbing up his leg.
Rodents are creatures that most people really, really don’t want to see but we know they are around. However, I think most of us expect to be safe from most creatures like that when we are up at 35,000 feet. I cannot imagine what that passenger must have felt like to see a mouse climbing from her food. But, that same neighboring passenger said that the people onboard were actually “not stressed at all” but the incident.
The diversion to Copenhagen only added a few extra hours to the journey as the passengers were transferred to a different aircraft for their journey. Rodents onboard are considered an emergency issue, according to the airline spokesperson, due to the fact that they can chew through wiring onboard. Plus, you know, actually having a mouse running around the cabin and possibly getting into people’s bags…
The airline says they will do a review with their food supplier over the issue as well. I have had a few meals on inter-European flights with SAS and never had an issue. On my flight where I flew SAS Plus class, the pizza was decent though not what I would call great (but, in all fairness, I am not a regular eater of pizza from Scandinavia anyway so it could have been inline with normal on that level).
I wonder if there will be some kind of compensation for the lady who got the mouse? I would imagine there would have to be something – I am curious to see what that will be, you know, in case a mouse ever gets in my food on one of their flights. 🙂
