A charter flight operated by Air Atlanta Icelandic had to return to New York’s JFK Airport due to a loose horse in the cargo hold, according to a YouTube video from the account ‘You can see ATC’. The incident, believed to have occurred on November 9th, happened shortly after take-off on flight number CC4592 bound for Liège, Belgium. As per the video narration, the pilot reported the issue at about 31,000 feet and requested permission for an immediate return to JFK, stating the crew’s inability to secure the animal.
The pilots, upon dumping 20 tonnes of fuel, managed to land safely back at JFK. At the airport, they requested veterinary assistance citing the horse was “in difficulty”, with no explicit details about the animal’s condition. Flightradar24 records show that the flight took off again at 6.35pm local time (11.35pm GMT) and concluded its journey in Liege approximately six hours later, at 6.49am local time (5.49am GMT) on the morning of November 10th.
In July, an in-flight passenger feud demanded a plane fly 700 miles off its intended course. In October, a flight headed to Tampa had to circle back to Panama due to an adult diaper mistaken for a bomb. Earlier this month, an Air New Zealand flight was compelled to return four hours into its course as a response to a technical glitch.