‘Rat’ causes Air India flight to return midway

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

The third largest airline in India in terms of passengers carried after Indigo and Jet airways announced two promotional schemes “New Year Special” and “Lucky First”.

In a statement, airline officials said they were keeping passenger safety in mind.

Maintenance workers would have to make sure that the rat did not damage equipment or chew any wires and the plane is certified to be rodent-free, an airline official said.

It’s been an eventful week for Air India following two other incidents with their fleet.

The aircraft would be fumigated and checked before being returned to service, a spokesman said.

Passengers were later flown to London in a different aircraft. “In this case, it might have also got in at Ahmedabad, from where the flight originated”, aviation expert Vipul Saxena said. The flight touched down in the city at 12.50 pm. Hence, Air India’s action seems operationally appropriate. Vermin were spotted past year on a plane flying from New Delhi to Calcutta, an incident that sparked a YouTube song.

Upon staff being alerted – while the plane was travelling over Iran – the plane turned back.