Aircraft grounded after 130 hamsters run riot in luggage hold

An aircraft has been grounded for the past five days after more than 130 hamsters travelling in its hold escaped.

Maintenance workers have been frantically trying to round up the rodents since Tuesday before they can chew through the plane’s wiring.

And despite photos emerging of some caught rodents, 16 are still on the loose, according to Portuguese daily newspaper Correio da Manga.

Baggage handlers reportedly found that their cages had been damaged and 132 of them were roaming around the cargo hold when the Airbus 320 touched down in the Azores archipelago capital Ponta Delgada on Sao Miguel Island.

Maintenance workers began searching the plane after passengers disembarked and their luggage was removed.

The hamsters were reportedly part of a delivery for a pet shop on the island which also included ferrets and some birds.

Since the mass break-out, the aircraft has been unable to return to Lisbon where it had started its journey and the search for the remaining rodents continued last night, Correio da Manha reported.

Sources told the paper the animals had been accepted on the flight after being turned away from an earlier one because the cages ‘didn’t meet accepted standards’.

TAP Air Portugal, the airline operating the flight, has yet to make any official comment.

The rodents’ front teeth, said to be harder than lead, aluminium, iron and copper, have to be continually worn down and kept sharp which is why they are constantly gnawing.

The natural grinding action of chewing on toys, hay, and other food items, causes the teeth to stay at an ideal length in normal herbivores, but many need to have their teeth manually cut regularly due to several health and genetic factors.

Hamster owners are advised to make sure all loose electrical wires and cords are tucked out of sight behind appliances or confined to areas where pets cannot get to them.

Other notable escapees include a giant rodent named Cinnamon who spent five days on the run after getting out of her enclosure in Hoo Zoo and Dinosaur World in Shropshire in September.

Meanwhile, in October two critically endangered parrots were found 60 miles from their aviary at London Zoo and earlier this month more than 20 monkeys escaped from an American research facility in South Carolina.

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