Flight makes emergency landing after passenger finds live rodent in food box; what can lead to such errors?

In a shocking turn of events, a Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) flight had to make an emergency landing after a live rodent was found inside a passenger’s meal. The plane, flying from Norway’s capital Oslo to Malaga in Spain, was compelled to land in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Airline spokesperson Oystein Schmidt told AFP that the diversion was a standard safety measure. Upon landing, the plane was thoroughly inspected to locate the rodent.

Jarle Borrestad, a passenger on the flight, who experienced the incident first-hand, shared his experience with the BBC. He recounted how a live mouse was spotted escaping from a food box belonging to the woman seated next to him. Despite the unusual occurrence, Borrestad said that the situation was very calm and that people “were not stressed at all”.

Airlines enforce strict protocols to prevent rodents from boarding flights due to the risk of electrical wiring being chewed through. This incident, however, serves as a stark reminder for all parties involved.

“This is something that happens extremely rarely,” Schmidt told BBC. “We have established procedures for such situations, which also include a review with our suppliers to ensure this does not happen again.”

Live rodents in food can pose safety risk (Source: Freepik)

But how do such errors occur in the first place?

To explore this, Indianexpress.com spoke with Surasree Basak, a graduate from the Frankfinn Institute of Air Hostess Training in Kolkata, to understand where flight officials might go wrong.

“It is important to note that every stage has a supervisor,” Basak explained. “The error might have occurred in two areas. First, in the kitchen. where hygiene standards must be rigorously maintained during food preparation and packing. Second, contamination could occur during the transportation of the food from the kitchen to the plane,” she said.

According to her, it is possible that at either of the stages, the supervisors might have overlooked the hygiene of the food, because once packed, It is impossible for rodents to get inside these boxes.

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