A jet flying from Hong Kong was delayed after a mouse was spotted in the cockpit.

Airport news for Flights,Travel on 08/09/2011.

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A Nepal Airlines flight scheduled to fly out of Hong Kong was grounded after a mouse was spotted in the plane’s cockpit. It took so long to try and find the little rodent that passengers could end up having to spend a second night in hotels.

Sita Gurun, General Manager at Nepal Airlines, said the plane had to stay on the ground in Hong Kong while efforts to catch the mouse continue. The airline says the mouse could be a safety risk, hence the need to ground the Boeing 757.

Ms Gurun said the mouse could possibly gnaw on cabling in the plane or could upset passengers if it was seen in-flight. This is the second time the Nepalese airline has suffered embarrassment this week.

The same aircraft was reportedly grounded at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu for more than 10 hours on Monday. That incident was also caused by a mouse.

In August, a similar thing happened in Stockholm, the capital if Sweden, when a mouse was seen aboard an SAS Airbus. That incident left 250 passengers stranded.

Recent years have seen a spate of mice sightings. In November 2009, two flights New York-London flights by the USA’s Delta Airlines were cancelled as a result of mouse sightings.

The Nepalese flight, which was bound for Kathmandu, was supposed to depart on Tuesday evening. Shortly before take-off, pilots spotted the mouse in the cockpit and the flight was cancelled.

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