--- description: An Air India plane headed to London from Mumbai returned to the airport after passengers spotted a rat on Wednesday. title: Air India Flight Returns to Airport After Passengers See Rat image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Air India Flight Returns to Airport After Passengers See Rat  by [Justin Worland](/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Senior Correspondent Dec 31, 2015 6:03 PM CUT  by [Justin Worland](/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Senior Correspondent Dec 31, 2015 6:03 PM CUT An Air India plane headed to London from Mumbai[ returned to the airport](http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/air-india-plane-returns-mumbai-after-passenger-sees-rat-n488496 "undefined") after passengers spotted a rat on Wednesday, according to an airline statement. The incident, reported by the Associated Press, came the same day that an Air India pilot aborted takeoff due to a stray dog on the runway and a different Air India plane was hit by a food services van. Airline officials said they would inspect the plane where the rat was spotted to ensure that the rodent did not chew through any wires or damage equipment, before returning the plane to service. Passengers traveled to London on an alternate plane. \[[AP](http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/air-india-plane-returns-mumbai-after-passenger-sees-rat-n488496 "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4165010/air-india-rat-flight/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4165010/air-india-rat-flight/"},"headline":"Air India Flight Returns to Airport After Passengers See Rat","datePublished":"2015-12-31T18:03:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T13:42:53.404Z","description":"Officials were concerned it may have chewed through wires","url":"https://time.com/4165010/air-india-rat-flight/","keywords":["India"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4165010/air-india-rat-flight/","name":"Air India Flight Returns to Airport After Passengers See Rat"}}]}] ```