Mouse delays BA flight by four hours
A British Airways flight from Heathrow was delayed by more than four hours after a mouse was found on board.
The Boeing 777 was about to take off from Terminal 5 en route to San Francisco when the little creature was spotted.
Due to the risk of the mouse gnawing through wiring and cables, the plane had to be checked thoroughly and the mouse removed.
A replacement aircraft had to be found and meanwhile BA bought lunch for all of the stranded passengers.
The replacement flight eventually left four hours and 16 minutes later.
Simon Calder at the Independent newspaper calculated the incident could potentially cost the airline £250,000 if all affected passengers claimed compensation and if some needed accommodation for missed connections.
But a BA spokesperson said this pure speculation and was based on it being a full aircraft, which it wasn’t.
Seeing the lighter side, she added: "With service and prices this good, we know almost everyone wants to fly with us to San Francisco, but on this occasion there was one very small customer who we had to send back to the gate."
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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