Adventurous cat 'hijacks' plane to Germany, refuses to leave, flight delayed by two days

A Ryanair flight was delayed for two days when a cat snuck into the aircraft before takeoff and refused to leave.

A high-flying cat grounded a flight for over two days after sneaking inside a Ryanair jet and refusing to leave the aircraft, practically hijacking it. A Boeing 737 was reportedly scheduled to fly from Rome to Germany last week but before the flight could take off the crewmembers heard a meowing sound coming from the aircraft, the New York Post reported.

Despite efforts to remove it from the plane, the cat evaded capture until it finally exited on its own.

Looking for the source of the noise, maintenance workers even removed several panels from the airplane. When they finally searched in the plane's electrical bay, they found a cat hiding inside.

Cat chase in cabin

The discovery set off a cat-and-mouse chase in the plane cabin. After many attempts of taking the cat out of the airplane, it decided to retreat back into the wiring, forcing the flight to be canceled over safety reasons.

For two days, the crew kept removing panels from the airplane to keep tabs on the tabby cat, but it kept moving to different parts of the plane making it impossible to track. They also worried that the cat might get stuck in a portion of the aircraft and die without their knowledge.

Eventually, after two days, the hijacker evacuated the aircraft voluntarily, making its way through an open door and down the stairs, before walking across the runway like nothing happened.

Feline trouble in air

However, its intrusion led to the passengers of the plane being delayed for two whole days. Many might think that the desperate attempts to rescue the cat seem over-the-top but sources explained that the cat running lose could’ve caused major problems at 30,000 feet as well as cost the plane carrier thousands of dollars.

Interestingly, this isn’t the first time a cat has wreaked havoc on an airplane. In 2021, a flight from Sudan to Qatar was forced to return to its departure point after a loose cat attacked the pilot shortly after takeoff.