Flight forced to make landing after rodent found in passenger's meal

A flight was forced to make a diversion after a rodent was discovered in a passenger's meal.

The aircraft, which was flying from Oslo to Malaga, Spain was forced to land in Copenhagen as a safety precaution after the mouse was found in an in-flight meal.

Rodents on board aircraft can pose a safety risk as they are able to chew through critical wiring. Airlines usually have procedures to prevent such an incident occurring.

Passengers on the disrupted Scandinavian Airlines flight were then flown on to Malaga on a different plane. 

One passenger on the plane, Jarle Borrestad, told BBC News that people remained calm and 'were not stressed at all' by the unusual discovery.

He said that the passenger sat next to him was opening her food when the rodent escaped from a box.

The incident resulted in a two and a half hour delay as the plane was fumigated and a replacement aircraft was found.

A spokesperson for Scandinavian Airlines told MailOnline: 'We made a very normal landing in Copenhagen in order to change aircraft and catering – which is a fully normal procedure when a rodent is found onboard.

'As Copenhagen is our main hub it was the most obvious thing to do as we have easy access to both technicians for the inspection and fumigation - and also a replacement aircraft.

'In these cases, we have very clear procedures to follow, including full inspection of the aircraft and of all our suppliers' processes to see what needs to be improved or changed in order to avoid scenarios like these in the future.'

Meanwhile, earlier this week two squirrels caused mayhem after jumping aboard a train service to Gatwick Airport.

The service on Tuesday morning was terminated after the rodents began attacking holidaymakers.

While staff managed to remove one of the squirrels, the other was ferried back to the train's origin Reading before being taken out of the carriage.