A cargo plane from New York was forced to return to John F. Kennedy International Airport following the escape of a horse from its box in the plane cargo, according to US media reports on Tuesday.
In a recording of air traffic control fetched by ABC News, it emerged that the horse managed to break loose on the evening of Thursday 9 November, within a half-hour of take off. At that time, the plane was already about 9,500 metres above sea level.
The pilot of the Boeing 747, operated by Air Atlanta Icelandic, requested to return to New York, as the crew was unable to safely secure the horse back into its transport crate.
“We are a cargo plane with a live animal, a horse, on board... We have no flight issue, but we need to return to New York as we can't resecure the horse,” the pilot stated in a recording posted on YouTube. The pilot also requested a vet to attend the landing.
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To facilitate a safe landing, the plane had to jettison approximately 20 tonnes of fuel over the Atlantic to balance the aircraft's weight.
The aircraft resumed its journey soon after and landed in Liège, Belgium the following morning, as per the data from aircraft tracking website, FlightRadar24.
Liège is one of just five airports in Europe that handle the transport of horses by air (the others being Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Ostend and Roissy). The Belgian airport has a dedicated terminal for the animals, as well as specialised companies to deal with the administrative formalities.
Horses transported by air are typically those used for competitions and are often worth many thousands, or even millions, of euros, Aero Affairs reports.
