The pilots of a Boeing 737 operated by Tarco Airlines were forced to make an emergency landing by an aggressive cat. The animal is said to have sneaked into the machine unnoticed and made it very clearly noticeable around half an hour after take-off.

It is suspected that the cat quietly entered the cockpit while cleaning was being carried out. There the four-legged friend first looked for a very good hiding place and took a long nap. Initially, the animal did not care either about the presence of the pilots or about the start, but continued to sleep with relish.

About half an hour after take-off, the animal woke up and was not at all enthusiastic about flying to Doha. According to local media reports, the cat was not only aggressive, but is said to have attacked the two pilots. For security reasons, they gave in to the “threats” and attacks of the four-legged friend and decided to return to the Khartoum airport in an emergency. There the aggressive cat was received by the executive. The incident occurred on February 24, 2021, but has not yet been further known.

In contrast to rodents, cats are not an acute safety hazard - but only if they don't panic and - as in this case - even attack the pilots. If the animal had behaved calmly, the onward flight would have been possible without any problems and without safety concerns. At most it is conceivable that the captain could have handed the cat over to the flight attendant. That was out of the question, however, because this specimen is said to have been so aggressive that it was only possible to keep the "stowaway" at bay with great difficulty.

Cats keep getting lost in planes

Since cats are not uninvited guests at many airports, but are tolerated, as they even make a positive contribution to flight safety due to their appetite for rodents, it happens again and again that individual cats get into planes unnoticed and make themselves comfortable there. Hiding is a specialty of this species.

Recently, an El Al accidentally locked up a cat. The animal held out for about ten days, but panicked and caused considerable property damage in the cockpit. Since the carrier does not fly very often due to the pandemic, the four-legged friend was even lucky that he was discovered and freed by chance.