Air Canada's Wednesday early morning flight from Halifax to Toronto turned into a lunch-time arrival thanks to a feline infiltrator.
Ripples got out of its carrier in the passenger cabin and made a beeline for the cockpit. As its owner called for the scared cat crew tried to catch it in the crowded space but it disappeared behind the panel.
Maintenance people had to remove panels to find Ripples, who had gotten into the nest of wires that runs the highly electronic systems of the A319 jetliner. Then they had to check to make sure the panicked cat hadn't done any damage.
The flight, which was supposed to leave at 5:40 a.m. finally took off about 10 a.m.
Halifax Airport spokesman Peter Spurway said it's the first incident of this kind that he's heard of and most passengers accepted the delay with good humor.



An aircraft modified for Japan's Coast Guard by Toronto's Field Aviation will be back in a shop somewhere after what could only be described as a significant bird strike.
After musing about the idea to select media just before Christmas, WestJet is now formally floating a proposal to launch a regional airline using turboprop aircraft.
The Transportation Safety Board says deployment of the whole airframe parachute on a Cirrus SR22 that crashed last September near Sundre, AB likely would have resulted in a much happier outcome. The TSB's final report on the crash was released Thursday.
Investigators hope to interview the lone survivor of the crash of a Keystone Air Piper Navajo that killed four others, including the pilot, on Tuesday in northwestern Ontario. They'll likely look for insights on why the pilot tried to proceed with a landing in what witnesses described as whiteout conditions in a fierce blizzard.

