New Delhi, Aug 6: An Air India aircraft had to be grounded on Monday evening due to the presence of a large number of unwelcome guests who posed a serious threat to the plane — scores of rats.
Rats were observed when the Airbus A-321, flying as AI 021, landed at IGI airport from Kolkata. The crew observed many rats running around in the rear half of the aircraft cabin. As soon as all the passengers alighted, the aircraft was taken out of service. Instead of being prepared for the next flight, this bigger version of the A-320 family of planes was taken to a remote bay for fumigation by central warehousing corporation personnel to eliminate all the rats on board.
Once even a single rat is observed on an aircraft, the plane has to be fumigated. "Rats on board an aircraft can lead to a catastrophe if they start chewing up electric wires of a fly by wire plane. If that happens, pilots will have no control on any system on board leading to a disaster," a senior commander said. What usually prevents such a situation is that passengers inadvertently drop a lot of food on the cabin floor, which keeps rats busy.
The most common way for rats to get on board an aircraft is through catering vans. "This is a universal phenomenon. Rats follow the large storage cases in which food trays are kept. The catering vans are like a home for them as food keeps getting dropped. Rats get on the high lifts that take those storage cases to aircraft and then remain there. This happens across the world," said an official.
Monday's incident, however, has led to concern in airlines as a large number of rats were present in the aircraft. "In-flight caterers must take all precautions in keeping their vans rat-free. All airlines will take up this issue with them," said the official.
The "rat flight" was not the only grounding AI faced on Monday. One of its oldest A-320s was released under minimum equipment list (which means a flight operates with a certain piece of equipment not functional and that has to be replaced within a certain timeframe) from Delhi to Dammam. The aircraft took off but it had to return as the snag persisted. The old generation A-320s are riddled with problems and AI is planning to replace them with brand new A-320s with all economy seating.
Comments
Add new comment