An angry cat forced the crew of a Boeing 737 to return to their departure airport, when it started attacking the two pilots after take off!

The incident happened last week, on the 24th of February. It was an evening flight from Khartoum International Airport (HSSS) in Sudan, to Doha (OTHH), Qatar. The aircraft was a Tarco Aviation Boeing 737. The crew entered the Boeing the 737 and boarded the passengers normally, without a cat appearing on the roster! The flight took off and was going just fine for around half an hour. And then suddenly, it wasn’t fine at all.

The frightened cat jumped out of its hiding place in the cockpit of the Boeing 737 and started to attack the astonished pilots. Frightened cats generally want to be left alone, having enough distance from others. There are many possible ways one could use, to describe the size of a 737 cockpit. “Spacious” isn’t one of them. Calming down a feline invader while they were in their seats is not something pilots generally train for!

Dealing With A Rogue Cat In A Boeing 737

The crew elected to return immediately to Khartoum. The crew informed the passengers of the return. We don’t know if the passengers learned about the cat in the Boeing 737 cockpit! In any case, the aircraft returned and landed without further incident. All that remained then, was to figure out how on earth this stowaway made it on board!

There have been incidents where pets escaped passengers’ control, and made it to the cockpit. But such incidents are quite rare these days, because of the locked cockpits. No, this particular cat was prudent enough to enter the Boeing 737’s cockpit the night before! Local information indicates that the aircraft had spent the night before in a hangar, while engineering was working on it. The company believes that the cat made it on board, while crews were either working on the plane, or cleaning it.

But in the grand scheme of things, the cat was lucky. We recently wrote about another cat, in another Boeing 737 cockpit, in Israel. That one also managed to make it on board, while engineers entered the aircraft. However this jet was sitting out in the desert. Their job done, the engineers then left the plane, locking the cat inside. We don’t know how long that invader spent in there, but it was long enough for it to eat through part of the shroud above the panel!

Hopefully, the cat managed to fare OK after exiting the Tarco Aviation Boeing 737. Those on it that actually had tickets to Doha, departed a bit later.

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