A SriLankan Airlines A330 aircraft was grounded for three days after a rat was found inside the plane.
The rodent was found inside the aircraft on February 22, 2024, after it landed at Colombo’s Bandaranaike International Airport (CMB) having returned from Allama Iqbal International Airport (LHE) in Lahore, Pakistan.
The aircraft was grounded in order to conduct a thorough search to make sure that the rat did not chew through any critical wiring and components.
“The aircraft was grounded for three days at Colombo,” an airline official was quoted to have said by media outlet Voice of America. “The plane could not be flown without making sure that the rat was accounted for. It was found dead.”
The government-owned airline reportedly had incurred more than $1.8 billion in losses as of March 2023. Out of its total fleet of 23, three other aircraft have been grounded for over a year.
In August 2022, the SriLankan government announced plans to partially sell its national carrier because it could “no longer afford to inject money” into running the carrier.
Indian media outlets named Tata Sons, Adani group and Emirates as possible interested parties in SriLankan Airlines.
This is not the first instance where a rat had caused major disruption to flights. In 2018, then- German Minister of Finance Olaf Scholz was left stranded during the International Monetary Fund (IMF) meeting after an A340 “Konrad Adenauer” was grounded in Indonesia because rats had gnawed through critical cables in the aircraft.