A Belgium-bound flight leaving from JFK airport in New York was forced to turn around after a horse got loose from the cargo hold, resulting in a very bumpy airplane ride for the passengers and crew.
The flight log recording revealed that the pilot immediately radioed to air traffic control when the plane — an Air Icelandic 747 — began shaking violently while it was 30,000 feet in the air.
“We are a cargo plane with a live animal — a horse — on board,” the pilot says. “The horse has broken out of its stall.”
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Air traffic control initially ordered the pilot to continue on his path, but unfortunately, the horse couldn’t be re-secured while they were in the air.
Flying, the pilot said, wasn’t an issue — but could prove unsafe for the poor creature if he wasn’t corraled properly.
The plane finally was ordered to turn around back to JFK to re-secure the horse.
Unfortunately, that also meant that the pilot had to dump more than 20 tons of fuel to avoid losing horsepower in the plane.
Veterinarians subsequently inspected the horse once the plane had finally landed back at JFK.
And while the vets said that the horse was “in difficulty,” they didn’t state the exact nature of the horse’s issue.
No one was injured during the flight — including the horse.
Fortunately, the horse was recorraled, and the flight resumed a few hours later.
