132 Hamsters Run Rampant in Cargo Hold, Plane Grounded for Days

A TAP Air Portugal A321neo was grounded for four days after over 130 hamsters escaped from their enclosures in the cargo hold. The aircraft will now be taken in for inspection to make sure the rascals didn’t turn any important wires into their dinner.

The Airbus A321neo took off from Humberto Delgado Airport (LIS) in Lisbon, Portugal on November 13. It flew 900 miles to the island of Ponta Delgada (PDL) with normal passenger baggage plus cages full of ferrets, birds, and 132 hamsters. The animals were being transported to a Ponta Delgada pet store.

After an uneventful flight, the ground crew popped open the cargo hold intending to begin unloading luggage. Instead, they immediately noticed significant damage to the cages. It didn’t take them long to figure out that all 132 hamsters managed to chew their way to freedom during the flight and were now running rampant in the plane’s belly. Luckily, however, the birds and ferrets behaved themselves and stayed in one place.

With all the nooks and crannies in the cargo hold, locating and capturing over 130 tiny creatures proved to be a difficult task. On November 16, three days after the flight, 116 hamsters had been caught with 16 left to go.

One day later, on November 17, ground crews managed to capture all 132 rodents and cleared the aircraft for flight. The flight team then returned it to Lisbon without passengers.

Since the hamsters have already proven themselves as impressively effective chewers, TAP Air Portugal has decided to put the plane through an inspection to check for interior damage before it is allowed to resume passenger service.

Local sources stated that this same live cargo had been denied from another flight since the transport boxes were noncompliant with regulations. Somehow, though, they made it onto the next one.

FMI: www.flytap.com