“It was a bit hot”: a plane passenger with a rat in his underpants was taken away by the police

On a flight from Moscow to Kavminvody, a passenger managed to smuggle a pet rat into the cabin in his pocket. Surprisingly, she was not noticed during the searches. A flight attendant discovered the animal in the cabin and reported this to the aircraft commander. After landing, the man, who tried to hide the rat in his own shorts, was met at the airport by police. MK found out what threatened the plane and passengers.

Sources at the Minvod airport report that at first the owner of the animal refused: he told the police that the flight attendants had mixed everything up and he didn’t have any rat. But during a more thorough search, the animal was still discovered – the owner of the rodent had hidden it from his pocket in his underpants.

First question: how could the airport workers not notice that the man had a rat in his pocket? This was noticed by all the rat owners with whom MK managed to contact. So the inspection isn’t that good?

The carrier’s press service did not respond to MK’s request. Meanwhile, the airline’s website says: in the cabin passengers can transport pet dogs, service dogs, guide dogs, cats, dwarf rabbits, ferrets, and birds. Strictly speaking, a rat is not far removed from a ferret in its essence, and why is it worse than a rabbit? Even much smarter. It’s easy to arrange a trip for the little animal – either at the time of purchasing a ticket, or at any time before completing online registration. You just need to select an additional service: “Pet transportation”. However, the owner of this rat decided not to waste time on formalities, so the animal was not carried. This was the danger.

Users of social networks have already rushed to criticize the flight attendant who “handed over” the illegal mustachioed passenger to her management. However, representatives of the civil aviation sector do not agree with these accusations.

“According to the rules of air transportation, any passenger who wants to travel with an animal must undergo veterinary control at the airport, fill out the appropriate documentation, pay for the appropriate service from the airline, and so on, if a particular animal can be taken into the cabin,” an employee of one of the well-known airlines. – If everything is done according to the rules, then there will be a mark in the special invoices. If the passenger did not do this, he violated the airline’s rules, this is called “illegal transportation.” The flight attendant was not guided by anything else.

The rat lover was on a domestic Russian flight, which means he did not go through customs, only security control (metal detectors and bag x-rays). Since the rat is not metal, it did not “ring” during the test. However, the current commander of the aircraft, with whom MK managed to contact, explained what could have happened due to the fault of the rat’s careless owner if the pet had run away from him during the flight.

– I’ll explain to everyone who protects a rat on board without a cage. “Under the cabin floor there are thousands of different wires that transmit data to the cockpit and are responsible for many control units of the aircraft systems,” the commander told us. – This airline has only a Boeing 737ng in its fleet, which is controlled by hydraulic systems using the same hoses located under the floor of the aircraft cabin.

Imagine that the animal would escape from the hands of the owner, slip into the hidden cavities of the cabin and gnaw through the wires of the radio communication system, thanks to which the crew from the ground receives information and, in particular, a change in the flight plan (navigation route) or the approach pattern in the airport area. It smells like disaster here.

The ratologist of the Nizhny Novgorod veterinary hospital, Anastasia Fedorycheva, shares the same opinion – as she explained in a conversation with an MK correspondent, such a trip is not safe for the rat itself.

– Rats, like other animals, must be transported in a specially equipped carrier. This will reduce the animal’s stress as much as possible and avoid the loss of the pet – an agile animal can run away. As for my attitude to this case, I definitely approve when owners do not abandon their pets, but look for a way to take them with them, but this must be done according to established rules and within the limits of what is adequate.

– How could the animal be, excuse me, for some time in the owner’s underpants?

– Since the rat arrived safely, it means there was definitely something to breathe. For rats, not breathing for more than 30 seconds is critical. Perhaps it was a little hot for her there, but there was clearly some kind of ventilation there.

– And if she had escaped, she could have bitten other passengers?

– The likelihood of a bite largely depends on the animal’s temperament; it is unlikely that a man would put an unkind rat in his underpants. But in case of pain, if he sat on it and pressed down, even the most affectionate and kind rat would bite. Pilots warn about the threat to the plane, to its instruments and wires in the event of a rodent escaping, but, it seems to me, if the rat is tame, she would most likely walk on the floor, and possibly climb onto the passengers’ legs, trying to get back to her owner.

“I have an extremely negative attitude towards this incident,” the rat owner named Anastasia, in turn, shared with MK. – Firstly, for the rat itself it could end in death. Not all animals tolerate turbulence well. And secondly, the pilots will tell you how the rodent’s escape could have turned out. In addition, there could be people with allergies on board.