Apparently, a cat made an uproar in the cabin of an airplane that was going to Qatar recently. The cat was so disturbing that the pilot decided to turn the plane around and abandon the programmed flight route, according to a report in the Sudanese newspaper. Al-Sundai.
A Boeing 737 from Tarco Airlines was already a 30-minute flight from Khartoum, Sudan, to Qatar’s capital, Doha, when the cat suddenly emerged from the cabin, according to the February 25 report. Probably alarmed by his surroundings and unknown people, the cat immediately went on the offensive, attacking the pilot and resisting attempts to catch him. The whole scene led the pilot to return to Khartoum to safely remove the feline passenger. As noted by the United Kingdom Subway, local reports characterized the cat as “aggressive and angry”.
The hairy stowaway was considered a wild cat and, according to Al-Sundai, airline officials believe the cat probably boarded the plane while it was parked in the hangar overnight for cleaning. It is also possible that the cat crawled on board the aircraft during the engineer check before the flight.
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Believe it or not, this is not the first time that a cat makes an unexpected appearance on a plane. In July, a cat was discovered on a military plane that arrived at Bangor International Airport in Maine. The Boeing C-17 Globemaster III cargo plane originally took off at Travis Air Force Base in California and stopped in Colorado Springs before reaching Bangor.
It was unclear at the time how or when the cat ended up on the cargo plane, however, he seemed to have enjoyed the trip and maintained a friendly temper when crew members discovered the gray and white feline hiding behind boxes on the plane.
“We are calling it a ‘feline recovery mission’,” said Aimee Thibodeau, airport marketing and business development manager. Bangor Daily News at the time. “As far as everyone knows, this is the first time at Bangor airport.”
The cat was then taken to the Bangor Humane Society. The staff at the animal shelter worked to find out whether or not the cat had owners looking for it, so they posted messages on social networks about the cat regularly. After several weeks of no response to cat posts, the shelter officially put the cat up for adoption. He quickly found a home with Nanci Hamlin, who works at Bangor International Airport, and was given an appropriate name: Cargo.
“Knowing Cargo the way we know it now, we can see why he was on that plane,” said Hamlin Bangor Daily News in a separate report. “He is not afraid and loves to be on top or inside everything.”
Hamlin added: “He’s a real spitfire and we call him the Tasmanian devil. He usually really walks around two in the morning.”