A TAP airliner spent an extra five days on the ground in the Azores as workers tracked down the last of a herd of hamsters.
The hamsters, who had been on their way to an Azores pet store, got loose in flight and were found running loose when cargo workers went to unload their crates. The shipment also included a number of ferrets and birds, but they remained in their crates.
The plane could not be put back in service until all 132 hamsters were accounted for because of the danger that they might gnaw through the plane’s wiring.
