Pussy went a Flying.........

[ORAC]

The Times: July 19, 2002

Cat found after trip of 63,000 miles
By Russell Jenkins

JONATHAN BOYD believes that his pet cat, Ozzy, is the best travelled pet in the country after getting lost in the hold of a plane that flew more than 63,000 miles over ten days.
The cat disappeared in the hold of a British Airways jet en route from Qatar to Heathrow and was thought to be lost until he emerged over a week later. Mr Boyd, 26, a history teacher, and his partner Katie Deacon, 27, took in the off-white cat as a stray while working as teachers in the Middle East. When they returned to Richmond in North Yorkshire, they decided to bring him too.

However, when the flight made a stopover in Bahrain, it was discovered that Ozzy, named after the footballer Ossie Ardiles, had disappeared from his cage. Although British Airways put up posters, the couple were convinced that they has seen the last of their pet. Then ten days later he emerged from the back of the hold, frightened, bewildered but still alive.

Mr Boyd, who believes he survived on tit-bits left around by airport workers, said: “He had hidden away for the whole ten days going backwards and forwards to the Middle East twice a day every day. He must have earned his flight wings easily, doing just over 3,150 miles each way.”

[TowerDog]

Same story went around in 1994:

A cat was lost in the baggage holds of a Tower Air B-747.
The airplane kept flying for a week or two until the cat owner made so much noise on the media that the airline grounded the plane, searched all the noocks and crannie's and finally retrieved the puddycat.

CNN and the public loved the story. Made the airline look good too: "Cat flying safely for a million miles without a ticket":rolleyes: :rolleyes:

[brakedwell]

At least the moggie lived. In the early seventies an awful smell became apparent in one of the RAF Britannias. On every flight it occured after about an hour in the air. A detailed inspection eventually revealed the rotting body of a cat in an air conditioning duct. Theory had it that the cat had been sleeping in the flexible hose of BOAC's ground conditioning unit in Calcutta. (Aircraft had just returned from working HK- Calcuttal- Katmandu route.) When the hose was plugged into the Brit and started up, the moggie had been fired into the aircraft ducting. Ughhh

[AtlPax]

And the original post winds up here.

I'm happy the pussy is ok. That's number one on my list. ;)

[Long Haul]

Another memorable cat-flight occured in Prestwick when they were testing the windscreen of the Jetstream 41 for bird-strike integrity. After returning from a break the engineers fired another frozen chicken from the cannon, to find that a cat had been having it's lunch, too. Apparently it make quite a mess.

[TightSlot]

4 legs and no obvious owner - it's self loading crew food

[Tolsti]

I have a close friend who currently has a moggie missing. She flew from TFE to AGP 2 weeks ago with 2 cats in seperate boxes in the hold......... on her arrival one box came up with cat and one without. Airline and handling agent denying responsibility and not helping much. Any ideas on what to do?

[Tucker]

Suggest you do what Towerdog mentioned; kick up a stink with the RSPCA, Media etc etc. I am sure the airline will eventually agree to do a thorough search of the a/c to find puss, rather than have a caTastrophe on their hands...:D

[Norfolk in breaks]

Long Haul - just as an aside, I think you'll find those chickens are defrosted before firing them at windscreens. Might as well fire rocks otherwise...:D

[Tolsti]

Look at the locations....... all she gets is the Spanish Shrug! I suppose that if I could get the a/c reg I could have it searched upon entry into another country on the basis that it might be carrying a diseased (although probably dead by now) animal?

[Xeque]

My pussy (cat) a vile tempered ginger (ex) tom recentlly flew BAH/BKK courtesty Gulf Air.

There is no real purpose to this story other than to say that he emerged from BKK's cargo area covered in **** (his own) and totally destraught.

I do love him though.

[Who has control?]

Norfolk;
There is a story/urban legend that British Rail wanted to test the integrity of their 125mph trains. So they asked BAe if they could borrow a 'chicken-gun' to fire at the windscreens.

After the test, BAe asked BR how they got on to which BR replied ' Err, it went through the screen, totaled the electrical bay and wrecked the engine room'.

To which BAe said 'Excuse me, but you DID remember to defrost it first didn't you?' :D :D :D

[Curious Pax]

Several lives ago I was a dispatcher for Servisair at MAN. I went to meet a Britannia 767 coming in from the Med, and told the baggage handlers there was HumRems (ie a coffin) on board and to make sure it went to the freight sheds and not arrivals with the rest of the baggage (you didn't normally get freight on charters in those days). Thought no more about it until that evening when I got a call asking whether I had seen said coffin as it hadn't made it to the freight shed - had to admit that I hadn't actually seen it come off the aircraft. They searched the ramp and the baggage hall to no avail, checked with the Spanish that it wasn't still at their end, and even had someone check in the hold when the aircraft returned from Egypt after its next trip, but still nothing. Following day it came back from the Med after yet another trip and so a colleague went to meet it for another look, and found the coffin in the small hold right at the back, where it seemed no one looked as it wasn't thought possible to fit a coffin in there - somehow the Spanish baggage loaders had managed to shoehorn it in there!! 5 flights after death must be some sort of (human) record - but obviously cats win every time!

Rather spookily I had another missing coffin a few weeks later, but that one just spent the night in the rain on the apron!

[gofer]

Remind me to always carry a note that - should I die abroad - my body should under NO circumstances be returned to the airport nearest my birthplace.:) :eek: