Rats! Back to Mumbai…

The stowaway rat – was it a tourist? going to visit friends in the UK? an aspiring illegal immigrant? a refugee? an economic migrant? lost? – allegedly spotted on the Air India flight on 30th December is not the airline’s only problem.

A member of the airline’s cabin crew glimpsed something in the pantry area which they believe was a rat. As rats can gnaw through cables, they are a serious safety hazard. The aircraft was in Teheran airspace, six hours into its journey – but turned round and went straight back to Mumbai. The 240 passengers were provided with another aircraft and started their journey again, behind their original schedule by nearly twelve hours. The original plane was put in isolation, facing fumigation and then detailed examination to ensure there was no rat damage before it could fly again, in accordance with safety procedures.

Some air safety experts have queried the decision to go all the way back to Mumbai, claiming that the plane should have landed at the nearest airport. There were also concerns that lunch was served to passengers after the plane turned around. Although the primary issue with the rat sighting was that it could damage vital flying equipment, there is also the issue of whether the food might have been contaminated by the rat – in which case it may not have been safe to eat.

[Adverts]

This is not the first case of a rat hitching a lift in an Air India plane. On 30th July, a rat was spotted on a flight from Delhi to Milan, Italy. Again, although the flight was some two hours into its journey, it turned back to Delhi.

The following day, two revenge attacks on Air India planes occurred. A stray dog is reported to have run into the path of a London-bound plane in Amritsar, and a catering van ran into a Mumbai-bound plane in the USA. “Don’t mess with the rats,” the incidents seemed to say.

There was an alleged mass sighting of rates on a New Delhi flight last year which went unavenged by canine or vehicular sympathisers. The alleged sightings have caused some controversy, with a spokesperson for Air India tell the press that poor hygiene procedures around food containers lead to scraps being dropped, which attract rats which then often board the plane with the food containers. The spokesperson claimed this was common across the world – but was contradicted by another spokesperson, who said that rat sightings were actually very rare.

The mystery over the standards of airline catering further deepened by comments Air India made this summer, after a picture of an Air India meal with a lizard in it circulated on social media. Air India said the picture was a fake, and malicious – and pointed out that it had had no in-flight complaints from passengers about finding a lizard in their food. A spokesperson for Air India commented on the airline’s food, saying, “Air India would like to reassure its passengers and the media that it takes the utmost care in the choice, quality, hygiene and safety in its service of meals on board all its flights.” The spokesperson stated that Air India collects meals for flights from reputable 5-star caterers who also provide catering services to several other international airlines. The caterers are selected after a stringent technical evaluation in terms of their infrastructure, capabilities, hygiene and safety certifications and other regulatory clearances.” If this is the case, do the strict procedures allow scraps to be dropped from food containers? One of these spokespersons is mistaken.

One bit of good news for the troubled airline came in September, when pilots suspended threatened strike action after management promised to negotiate with them over several complaints, including union recognition, the right to strike and a pay cut of 25% which the airline had implemented.