Airplane Grounded for Days As Officials Hunt Down Rampaging Hoard of Escaped Hamsters

More than 130 hamsters escaped their damaged transportation boxes during a flight from Lisbon, Portugal, to the Azores islands, grounding the plane for a four-day “nightmare in hamsterland.”

When the ill-fated plane, carrying the crew, passengers, luggage and an order for a pet shop that included 132 hamsters, ferrets and birds, landed in the Azores last week, baggage handlers realized the boxes were damaged and the rodents were missing, according to reporting by the Portugal Resident.

Aircraft personnel acted quickly to retrieve the hamsters before they could start damaging the plane’s electrical wiring.

While 16 were still missing as of Sunday morning, all of them have since been recovered and the plane returned to Lisbon by the end of the day, the Portugal Resident reported.