Noah’s Ark
I think most people would be shocked if they only knew what animals were flying with them or occupied their space last. They might even be more shocked if they knew what they had left behind.
One of the biggest problems caused by animals on planes is corrosion. For example I remember British Caledonian used to very often fly planes with passengers in one direction and then use the same plane to ferry race horses and even elephants the other way. In itself, not a problem as long as the interior was put right before and after but there became one issue that never seemed to disappear completely, and that was poo and primarily pee.
Sometimes these animals used to pee so much that when the aircraft tilted upwards a veritable tidal wave of faeces ridden pee rushed to the rear of the aircraft engulfing the ankles of any unwary staff that had their seats there. I know as I have a ruined pair of trainers to prove it! It used to then get crazier if the passengers were elephants as they, like us, get bored, but when they do their heads sway from side to side. You get more than one doing this in sequence and it causes chaos with the autopilot.
Anyway, back to the pee. This pee has to go somewhere and, unless the cabin is sealed like a Tupperware box that somewhere ends up being under the floor and amongst the aircraft structure itself. This stuff is full of ammonia and, when sloshing around on sheets of alloy, nuts, bolts and wires nature starts to follow its course resulting in various levels of corrosive threat to the aircraft infrastructure. These problems were always found during the major maintenance ‘D’ check which such planes went through but who would have thought that a Jumbo could have done so much damage to….well a Jumbo!
Showing posts with label pets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pets. Show all posts
Pets on planes. Part 2
Supermouse
Some people just cannot or will not leave their pets at home and often it causes chaos. I still remember one time when standing close to a baggage x ray machine I heard a tremendous commotion. I turned to see this very lithe, beautiful albeit over-made up young woman screaming at an official to “leave im alone” and “don’t frighten im”
The “im” in question was a five foot long python that she had packed in her cabin bag along with a Hello magazine and a pair of hair straighteners. “He is an integral part of my act” she bleated “and part of the family”. It was fun watching the security folk trying to lever this large snake back into a small bag using nothing but hand-held metal detectors whilst having to restrain a now frantic ‘exotic’ dancer. She was also found to have two dead mice in a little cool box for the journey in case he got ‘peckish’
The ‘Supermouse’ referred to in my title was neither of the two snake snacks mentioned above. This supermouse was very much alive and caused mayhem lasting three days on a long drawn out flight to Australia. This mouse belonged to a little girl who could not bear being separated from her ‘Mickey’ so she successfully managed to stow it away somewhere on her person.
Off the plane went and after about 3 hours we could see something was clearly wrong. There was this frantic child on her hands and knees followed by even more frantic parents poking their heads under people’s seats. They refused to tell even the crew what they were doing but it became clear when a scream came from the rear of the cabin galley area. “I tell you it was a bloody mouse” came an indignant voice. “The bloody thing was washing its feet as bold as you like in that corner”
Creatures like mice are big deals in the airline world. Mice have been known to not only chew cables but also spread diseases around the world. Our plane immediately was awarded the status of a flying global outcast along with everyone in it. Mickey had to be caught and all the passengers and spare crew set to it whilst the pilot tried to get someone somewhere to allow us to land with a rodent on the run.
Finally the mouse hunt ended fruitlessly and our captain had managed to persuade the Lebanon to allow us to land. We all shuffled off into 40 degrees of Beirut sunshine, only allowed to take the clothes on our back and the plane was impounded until Mickey was taken ‘Dead or Alive’.
It took a nightmare three days in blinding heat with no change of clothes living in a war zone before the news came through than Mickey was no more. The manual searches had failed so they decided to gas the aircraft and kill it that way. Unfortunately having gassed the plane and located our demised Mickey the humidity would not allow the gas to leave again. This meant that the plane had to go up and down a spare runway with its doors open before we were allowed to get on it.
Just before we boarded a little chap came along with a jam jar. Inside the jar was a dead mouse which he proudly displayed to the passengers and crew. “We have him,we have him” he exulted. I glanced over to the young girl to see how she was coping looking at the corpse. She quickly turned to her dad and said “it is not hi……” before he snatched her away and headed for the aircraft steps.
Some people just cannot or will not leave their pets at home and often it causes chaos. I still remember one time when standing close to a baggage x ray machine I heard a tremendous commotion. I turned to see this very lithe, beautiful albeit over-made up young woman screaming at an official to “leave im alone” and “don’t frighten im”
The “im” in question was a five foot long python that she had packed in her cabin bag along with a Hello magazine and a pair of hair straighteners. “He is an integral part of my act” she bleated “and part of the family”. It was fun watching the security folk trying to lever this large snake back into a small bag using nothing but hand-held metal detectors whilst having to restrain a now frantic ‘exotic’ dancer. She was also found to have two dead mice in a little cool box for the journey in case he got ‘peckish’
The ‘Supermouse’ referred to in my title was neither of the two snake snacks mentioned above. This supermouse was very much alive and caused mayhem lasting three days on a long drawn out flight to Australia. This mouse belonged to a little girl who could not bear being separated from her ‘Mickey’ so she successfully managed to stow it away somewhere on her person.
Off the plane went and after about 3 hours we could see something was clearly wrong. There was this frantic child on her hands and knees followed by even more frantic parents poking their heads under people’s seats. They refused to tell even the crew what they were doing but it became clear when a scream came from the rear of the cabin galley area. “I tell you it was a bloody mouse” came an indignant voice. “The bloody thing was washing its feet as bold as you like in that corner”
Creatures like mice are big deals in the airline world. Mice have been known to not only chew cables but also spread diseases around the world. Our plane immediately was awarded the status of a flying global outcast along with everyone in it. Mickey had to be caught and all the passengers and spare crew set to it whilst the pilot tried to get someone somewhere to allow us to land with a rodent on the run.
Finally the mouse hunt ended fruitlessly and our captain had managed to persuade the Lebanon to allow us to land. We all shuffled off into 40 degrees of Beirut sunshine, only allowed to take the clothes on our back and the plane was impounded until Mickey was taken ‘Dead or Alive’.
It took a nightmare three days in blinding heat with no change of clothes living in a war zone before the news came through than Mickey was no more. The manual searches had failed so they decided to gas the aircraft and kill it that way. Unfortunately having gassed the plane and located our demised Mickey the humidity would not allow the gas to leave again. This meant that the plane had to go up and down a spare runway with its doors open before we were allowed to get on it.
Just before we boarded a little chap came along with a jam jar. Inside the jar was a dead mouse which he proudly displayed to the passengers and crew. “We have him,we have him” he exulted. I glanced over to the young girl to see how she was coping looking at the corpse. She quickly turned to her dad and said “it is not hi……” before he snatched her away and headed for the aircraft steps.
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