A Close Call at 10,000 Feet.

As many of you know my son is a commercial airline pilot. A few weeks ago he was in San Antonio Texas, departing to Chicago O’Hare. It went like this…

It was a clear day and he was on his last leg of a four day trip, ready to come home. He took off and was climbing. He was cleared to 41,000 feet. As he passed the 10,000 foot level he reached up and flipped off the seatbelt sign. He heard a few hard thumps and loud screams followed by another loud bang. He looked at the captain and said, “What the hell was that?” The captain startled as well, said, “I don’t know. Call back and see.”

He called back to the flight attendants but could get NO answer. After a few unanswered calls, he got up and walked to the cockpit door which has a peep hole in it and looked through. To his horror he saw no filght attendants and everyone in First Class standing up and looking panicked at the floor. He could not see the floor from the peep hole and had no idea who or what lay on the floor at the cockpit entrance. He immediately double bolted the already locked cockpit door with the hardened steel intrusion bolt. He told the captain what he had seen and the captain fearing a possible criminal event called air traffic controllers and requested to stop his climb and hold at 15,000 feet, thinking he was about to be returning to San Antonio airport for an emergency. My son finally got the flight attendant in the rear of the airplane to answer and tell him what was going on.

It seems that the freshly pre-packaged container that the caterer had loaded with drinks and snacks into the galley contained 3 hide-aways inside. When she opened the container door the 3 stow-aways (mice) popped out ran down the middle of the aisle for all to see to First Class where they disappeared under the seats. The banging and the screams were the flight attendant and the ladies in the first rows seeing the mice. They had grabbed their carry-ons that were under their seats so the mice would not get into them and were standing in the seats off the floor screaming.

They climbed on to the 41,000 foot level and continued the trip. He called maintenance and said the plane needed maintenance when landing in Chicago. Maintenance asked what he needed. He said, “3 feral cats should do.” The plane had to be switched in O’Hare. His airline has a very strict policy of NO MICE in First Class- especially without purchasing a ticket. WHAT A DISCRIMINAGING AIRLINE!!