http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080314/NEWS/803140356/-1/NEWS04 March 14, 2008 Stowaway mouse puts travelers on standby By TOM ALEX REGISTER STAFF WRITER Dana Drape's Caribbean getaway was delayed six hours Thursday. Not by an ice storm. Not by a medical emergency. Not because of a terror alert. The holdup was blamed on a furry little guy at the airport. Delta Airlines' Flight 4704 from Des Moines to Atlanta was grounded shortly before its scheduled 5:50 a.m. departure when crew members discovered a mouse in the galley. About 30 passengers waited while traps were set in an effort to snag the evasive stowaway. "Not a single person could have cared less if there was a mouse on the plane with us," said Drape, whose family was headed for a resort in the Turks and Caicos islands. "But we were told it was a health and safety problem." Elizabeth Isham Cory, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration, confirmed that flight crews would think twice before they flew with a loose rodent. "Mice chew, and you don't want them getting into the wiring of an aircraft," she said. "It's something the airlines take very seriously, and we do, too." So the spring breakers sat and waited for an update. Drape, her husband and three sons missed their connecting flight. A scheduled 1 p.m. island arrival began to look more and more remote. "Spring break isn't the best time of the year to look for another connecting flight," she said. Some passengers got irritated; others turned to humor. "A pilot headed for Cincinnati said his plane had a seven-mouse limit," Drape said. Kristen Loughman, a spokeswoman for Atlantic Southeast Airlines, which operates Delta's connector service out of Des Moines, said any unticketed mammal is a potential problem, even on a short flight. "Safety of passengers is our number one priority," she said. There are examples beyond Des Moines. - Last spring, a white mouse aboard a Japan-bound Vietnam Airlines plane forced a four-hour delay. Officials said the mouse was brought on in carry-on luggage. - A whistle-blower with a hidden camera in 2006 recorded a mouse infestation on an American Airlines jet on which workers found nests in air vents and dead mice in emergency oxygen masks. Delays on international flights have also been blamed on scorpions and bumblebees in recent years. Some of the Des Moines passengers made it clear that they were willing to take the risk. Then good news came, shortly after 11 a.m. "Our maintenance team inspected the aircraft, and it departed for Atlanta at 11:39 a.m.," Loughman said. Whether it was good news for the mouse is anybody's guess. Airline officials would neither confirm nor deny whether it was caught or allowed to continue. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> If you wish to unsubscribe from the AIRLINE List, please send an E-mail to: "listserv@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx". Within the body of the text, only write the following:"SIGNOFF AIRLINE".