HOUSTON—If you fly a lot, you’re no stranger to delays. Usually, it’s weather. Sometimes, it’s mechanical. Sometimes, it seems like there’s no reason at all.
But on Tuesday, a group of passengers on a Continental flight had a good – albeit unusual – reason for their delay: otters.
No joke. Otters.
The furry critters caused an 80-minute delay for a Columbus-bound flight at Houston’s Bush Intercontinental Airport.
The flight was supposed to leave at 7:55 p.m., but the otters had other plans.
Passengers were told the otters were in the cargo area, and somehow they escaped their cages.
"They told us there were a couple of otters loose in the cargo area," passenger Nicky Devanny said. "People thought it was a joke at first, I think."
But it wasn’t a joke. It was a marine mammal jailbreak.
"We watched them take them off the plane in a box, and the next thing we know one of the otters got loose and took off across the tarmac. They were chasing it, so we had to wait for 45 minutes for them to finally catch it again to get our luggage put back on and for the plane to come home," passenger Harvey Bullock said.
Crews eventually got things under control, and the plane finally took off at 9:15 p.m.
