Flight diverted after passenger found live mouse in his meal

Scandinavian airline SAS said one of its flights had to make an emergency landing after a mouse escaped from a passenger’s meal on Wednesday.

The plane was flying from Oslo, the Norwegian capital, to Malaga, Spain, and was forced to make an emergency landing in Copenhagen, Denmark.

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

The passengers on the flight were then flown to Malaga on another plane.

Airlines usually have strict restrictions on rodents on board aircraft to prevent electrical cables from being chewed.

“It’s something that happens extremely rarely,” Schmidt said.

“We have established procedures for such situations, which also include a review with our suppliers to ensure this does not happen again.”

Jarle Borrestad experienced the incident with his own eyes, telling BBC News in a recorded video that the mouse had escaped from the box of food 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”.

He did, however, admit to putting his socks over his pants so the mouse wouldn’t climb up his legs.

Mr Borrestad said that although the flight was diverted, it only added a few extra hours to the journey.

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

A train service in southern England has been suspended mid-journey after two squirrels got into a carriage and one of them refused to come down.