A plane had to be grounded for four days after more than 130 hamsters escaped from their cages on board.
The TAP Air Portugal plane was grounded at Ponta Delgada Airport on Sao Miguel Island until the aircraft could be accessed for damage, and all of the rodents were captured.
The flight had taken off last Wednesday from Lisbon with multiple animals, including hamsters, ferrets and caged birds to be delivered to a pet store.
It wasn’t until the Airbus A321Neo — which also had human passengers — landed at the airport two hours later that baggage handlers opened up the cargo hold to unload the items. They spotted a hamster running loose and soon discovered the cages had been damaged.
It is believed the hamsters chewed through their wire cages to escape.
Following the incident, TAP Air Portugal said the £83 million aircraft would undergo “exhaustive checks” to assess any damage. The aircraft was grounded at the airport until Sunday.
Photos taken during the search show one of the hamsters being held in a worker’s hand and another being pulled out from a corner of the airplane. While it is unknown how the animals escaped, the Animal Humane Society recommends that hamsters be kept “in a solid, bottom wire cage or an aquarium that has a wire mesh cover for ventilation.”
The organisation also recommends that the inside of their enclosure be lined with absorbent bedding, as hamsters tend to chew on things to keep their teeth from overgrowing.
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