By Tim Binnall
Workers at a Portuguese airport were forced to become hamster hunters after dozens of the critters escaped the cargo hold of a plane, which caused it to be grounded for several days. According to a local media report, the weird incident came to light last Tuesday when an Airbus 320 landed at the Ponta Delgada Airport on the island of São Miguel in the Azores. As baggage handlers removed the cargo from the aircraft, they were stunned to discover that over 130 hamsters had managed to find their way out of a container that was part of a shipment from a pet store.
Out of concern that the curious critters could damage critical wires aboard the plane by way of their voracious nibbling, airport officials promptly grounded the Airbus. Over the course of what one imagines were four painstaking days, all but 16 of the hamsters were recovered. Workers reportedly rounded up the remaining rodents on Saturday, allowing the plane to fly back to Lisbon where the $105 million airliner will be inspected to ensure that the diminutive creatures had not done any unseen damage to its inner workings.