Cats on a plane

OK, so it was just one cat. This time:

An Air Canada flight was grounded for several hours Wednesday morning after a cat got loose in the airplane and hid in the cockpit.

"We now have a 'lost cat in airplane' file that's got one piece of paper in it after this morning," said Peter Spurway, spokesman for the Halifax International Airport Authority.

Flight 603 from Halifax to Toronto had been scheduled to leave at 5:40 a.m. before Ripples the cat escaped from its carrier and ran into the cockpit.

The crew scoured the plane as the cat's owner called out to her pet.

Eventually they determined that the cat had "weaseled its way down into the wiring of the cockpit," Spurway said.

The cat was found and returned safely, but the flight remained grounded until the cockpit wiring could be checked for damage.

The plane finally took off at 10:00 am local time, more than six hours late.