Flight diverted after passenger finds live mouse in meal

Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) said one of its flights had to make an emergency landing on Wednesday after a mouse escaped from a passenger’s in-flight menu.

The plane was en route from Norway’s capital Oslo to Malaga, Spain and had to make an emergency landing in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The diversion was in accordance with the airline’s procedures because the furry stowaway posed a safety risk, airline spokesman Oystein Schmidt told the AFP news agency.

The passengers of the flight were later flown to Malaga on another aircraft.

To prevent rodents from chewing through electrical wires, airlines usually have strict restrictions on rodents on board aircraft.

“This happens extremely rarely,” said Schmidt.

“We have procedures in place for such situations, including checking with our suppliers to ensure this does not happen again.”

Jarle Borrestad witnessed the incident himself and told the BBC News Channel in a recorded video that the mouse escaped from the food box that the woman sitting next to him on the plane was opening.

Mr Borrestad said the situation was very calm and people were “not stressed at all”.

However, he admitted that he had pulled his socks over his pants to prevent the mouse from crawling up his legs.

Mr Borrestad said the flight diversion had only added a few hours to the journey time.

This is the second rodent-related travel incident within a week.

A train in southern England had to be cancelled in the middle of the journey after two squirrels climbed into a car and one refused to get out.