Eight mice found – dead and alive – on United Airlines flight

If something runs over your foot on your next flight, beware: it might not be the beverage cart.

In a reversal of roles, the United States nearly imported its own tainted goods to China on a United Airlines flight recently. While en route to China, United employees discovered a total of eight mice — some dead, some alive — hidden in pillows throughout the cabin. On arrival, Chinese officials greeted the plane with rat poison and mouse traps.

The story was printed in newspapers yesterday, along with lists of viruses mice can carry. The articles also probably incited panic when they wrote of the potentially fatal damage mice could do by chewing through wires on aircraft.

Could these tiny creatures be more dangerous than the terrorists?


Think that’s bad? Check out some other unpleasant flight experiences. How rotten would it be flying…

[Thanks to Joshua Davis (articnomad) for the great shot of a plane.]