Plane makes emergency landing after bat found in business class

A highspeed DSLR photo that shows a bechstein´s bat on its acrobatic flight through the black night. The mouth is wide opened using echolocation for orientation.
By Alexandra Coulton


An Air India plane was forced to divert after a bat startled passengers and crew alike by flying through the business-class cabin.

The flight was headed to Newark from Delhi’s Indra Gandhi Airport, but was forced to turn back two hours into the flight after a bat was spotted on board, according to the Times of India (TOI).

The pilot informed air traffic controllers of the vampiric stowaway’s presence about half an hour into the flight.

Air India officials told ANI News Agency that a “local standby emergency” was declared and “wildlife staff” were called to catch the bat when it landed back in Delhi.

Aviation authorities in India told ANI that fumigation was carried out on the aircraft and a bat carcass was removed from the business class section of the plane.

“The probable reason/cause may be loading vehicles like those for catering because all the time rats/bats come from their vehicle only,” Air India told ANI.

A passenger onboard the flight managed to capture footage of the bat zooming through the plane, which was posted to a Facebook page called FlightMode.

The footage shows the bat flying through the aisle then swooping close to passengers’ heads on the right-hand side of the plane.

Surprisingly, the passengers don’t look too fussed by the bat’s surprise appearance.

Passengers were moved to another Air India plane which departed for Newark at 6:37am local time, about four hours after its original departure time.

However, some reports indicate the passengers made the journey on the same plane that the fumigation took place.

Featured image source: iStock/Faultier

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