Well, this is one for the record books: flatulent sheep forced a cargo plane to make an emergency landing this week.
A Singapore Airlines Boeing 747-400 freighter plane traveling from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur had 2,186 sheep on board, and the combined stench of their “exhaust fumes” and manure set off the smoke alarm.
The crew, thinking the alarm was due to, you know, fire, quickly diverted to Bali and made an emergency landing. Of course, when emergency services boarded, they didn’t find any fire or smoke — but they did find the natural emissions of 2,000 sheep. Two and a half hours later, the herd and the crew were on their way again.
This isn’t the first time animals have wreaked their own special brand of havoc on a Singapore Airlines plane. In August, another aircraft was carrying a flock of storks from Istanbul to Singapore, and soon after takeoff, the birds pecked a hole in the nose of the plane.
In the case of the sheep, the hoofers didn’t cause any damage. Apparently though, bloat and flatulence are common occurrences when animals like cattle, sheep, and sheep are under stress.
Now we’ve heard everything. Thank goodness we didn’t have to smell it.
