Reports that the mouse was attempting to make his way back to Russia could not be confirmed.
The captain of a Delta 767-400 refused to operate a flight to London after a mouse was seen running through the cabin.
The 300 passengers booked on Sunday’s Delta Flight 1, the airline’s redeye service from New York’s Kennedy Airport to London Heathrow, were delayed nearly 3 1/2 hours.
Fearing the rodent might gnaw through some critical wiring and put the entire aircraft at risk high over the Atlantic, the crew chose to evacuate the aircraft and wait for a replacement to be flown in.
Scheduled for a 9pm departure, the flight finally got off the ground at 12:25am, according to FlightAware records.
The rogue mouse is the latest in a series of attacks by the animal kingdom upon New York-area aviation interests this year, with geese taking down US Airways 1549 in January and turtles occupying a JFK runway in July.
