Flight makes emergency landing after live mouse found in plane meal

It seems this was a case of hide and seek on an airplane. The surprising appearance of a mouse forced Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) on Wednesday to divert a flight from Oslo, Norway, to Malaga, Spain, for an emergency landing in Copenhagen, Denmark. And this wasn’t a computer mouse. It was a real live mouse that had run out of the box containing a passenger’s meal.

The rodent was apparently a stowaway, assuming there is no record of that mouse purchasing a ticket for that particular flight. You may be wondering why the airline took the rather drastic measure of grounding the flight as soon as possible. Well, like many other airlines, SAS has a policy of diverting flights when a rodent is unexpectedly found. That’s because such rodents can pose significant flight safety risks. So if you see a mouse during your flight, don’t just say, “Aw, how cute.” Instead, tell the flight crew as soon as possible.

The biggest aircraft-specific risk is that rodents can chew through wiring and other aircraft parts. And you actually want an aircraft’s wiring to be intact and functioning when the aircraft is in the air. Moreover, the problem with seeing one mouse is that you don’t know how many other mice are nearby. A single mouse can be the harbinger or sign of an infestation. Therefore, the discovery of one mouse means the crew must check the rest of the plane for other furry minions.

Plus, when you’re ordering a meal somewhere (whether on an airplane or in a restaurant), there are reasons why you wouldn’t normally say, “I’ll take the one with the live mouse in it.” Mice can be quite dirty. They tend to pee and poop everywhere. These bodily fluids and their body surfaces can contain all kinds of nasty disease-causing microbes, such as various bacteria and viruses. Mice can therefore contaminate everything they touch with harmful pathogens.

One of the most common concerns is Salmonella. Mice can easily pick up these types of bacteria if they are near garbage, which mice often do. I’ve written about it Salmonella quite a few times Forbes because the bacteria has led to a number of different food- and animal-borne outbreaks.

You don’t want this bacteria to enter your gastrointestinal tract. The result can be severe abdominal cramps and diarrhea, often bloody diarrhea. And no one wants to have these kinds of symptoms during an outing. Salmonellosis can even make you so sick that you end up in the hospital, especially if your immune system is weaker.

Another stupid thing mice can carry is… Leptospirabacteria that occur in water or soil. Leptospira can cause leptospirosis, which can result in fever, headache, chills, muscle aches and vomiting. Now, things can also get worse with leptospirosis, especially if you don’t get antibiotics in time. Complications include kidney or liver damage, meningitis and even death.

If you do find a mouse in one of your food items, do not eat it (not the food item or the mouse), no matter how hungry you are. Immediately throw away the food and anything that came into contact with the food.

It is not clear how and when the mouse ended up in the meal box. The mouse provided no details. However, Jack Burgess reports for BBC News quoted SAS spokesperson Oystein Schmidt: “This is something that happens extremely rarely.” Schmift added: “We have procedures in place for such situations, including a review with our suppliers to ensure this does not happen again.” Yes, the hope is that a meal on board would be very tasty. And not very mice.