Plane Grounded for 4 Days After More Than 130 Hamsters Escape from Cages 

A plane in Portugal was grounded for four days while airport staff searched for over 130 hamsters that ran loose after escaping from their cages.

According to The Telegraph, the TAP Air Portugal plane arrived at the Ponta Delgada Airport on Sao Miguel Island on Wednesday, Nov. 13, after taking off from Lisbon with multiple animals, including hamsters, ferrets and caged birds, to be delivered to a pet store.

Portuguese newspaper Correio da Manhã reports that the animals were accepted on their aircraft after reportedly being meant to be on an earlier flight and being denied entry due to the condition of their cages.

PEOPLE reached out to TAP Air Portugal for comment but did not immediately hear back.

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It wasn’t until the Airbus A321Neo — which also had human passengers — landed at the airport that baggage collection teams noticed that the hamster boxes had been damaged and that the rodents were on the loose, reports Aviação TV.

Following the incident, TAP Air Portugal said the plane would undergo “exhaustive checks” to assess any damage. The aircraft was grounded at the airport until Sunday, Nov. 17, when airport staff could remove the 16 hamsters on the plane, The Telegraph reports.

Photos acquired by The Telegraph and the New York Post show one of the hamsters being held in a worker’s hand and another being pulled out from a corner of the airplane.

While it is unknown how the animals escaped, the Animal Humane Society recommends that hamsters be kept “in a solid, bottom wire cage or an aquarium that has a wire mesh cover for ventilation.”

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The organization also recommends that the inside of their enclosure be lined with absorbent bedding, as hamsters tend to chew on things to keep their teeth from overgrowing.