Horse Gets Loose on Plane at 31,000 Feet

You'll believe a horse can fly and cause havoc mid-flight.

By Andrew Roberts

A horse had one wild ride in the sky after it managed to get free on a 747 cargo plane heading to Belgium from New York. According to ABC News, the flight was forced to return to John F. Kennedy International Airport after the horse escaped and was running around in the cargo hold at 31,000 feet.

The incident was covered and described by air traffic control, including the pilot of the plane's reaction to the situation. "We are a cargo plane with a live animal, a horse, on board," they said. "The horse has broken out of its stall."

The flight itself wasn't affected by the escape, but the flight was forced to return to "resecure" the horse and make sure there were no injuries. Once the plane returned to JFK, a veterinarian was requested due to the horse having "difficulty" after the landing. The plane was forced to dump 20 tons of fuel into the Atlantic, with ABC News noting it was "10 miles west of Martha's Vineyard."

"There's no issue with flying, but we need to go back to New York as we can't resecure the horse," the pilots added, later denying they needed assistance with getting back to the ground. "On the ground, negative. On the ramp, yes, we have a horse in problem."

The only remaining mystery is how the horse managed to get out of its pen to begin with. Did the horse somehow will the door to fly open with its mind? Did someone cut a corner or two and forget to lock the gate? Or is the truth deeper within the conspiracy?

Still, the horse was OK, the flight was fine and we can assume a few fish are having a rough night due to that dumped fuel. And thankfully this didn't end up like a few of the examples the New York Post listed. This includes a passenger that "had diarrhea all the way through the plane" on a flight from Atlanta to Barcelona, and another from NYC to Guyana that had to return to JFK after a passenger referred to a member of the flight crew as a "waiter."

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