 LISBON: A TAP Air Portugal flight was grounded for four days after over 130 hamsters escaped from their transport boxes and caused chaos inside the plane’s cargo hold, according to local reports.
The hamsters were part of a shipment on a passenger flight traveling from Lisbon to Ponta Delgada, located on São Miguel Island in the Azores. The rodents, along with ferrets and caged birds, were being delivered to a pet store in Ponta Delgada on Wednesday, November 13. However, when airport staff at Ponta Delgada Airport began unloading the cargo, they discovered that the boxes intended to hold the hamsters were damaged and empty.
As a result, the aircraft was grounded for safety reasons, while airport staff attempted to locate and capture the runaway hamsters. It took several days for airport personnel to track down and secure all 132 hamsters, with the last 16 captured on Sunday.
The incident caused significant disruption, as the hamsters darted around the cargo hold, evading capture and creating a bizarre challenge for staff. Eventually, the situation was resolved, and the flight was cleared for operation after the hamsters were safely contained.
