Horse loose on plane!

[OrangeAndLemon]

Plane forced to return to airport after horse escapes crate

"We have a horse problem" -The jet was flying to Belgium when an equine passenger escaped its crate.

www.bbc.co.uk

Hope horse is okay! That's a new take on traveling a horse loose.

 

[Birker2020]

Blimey they were lucky. If it had kicked a hole in the plane.

To be fair to the horse a change in air pressure may have resulted in severe pain to the horse hence why it tried to escape from the pain.

People don't realise but there are a fair few cases each year of animals suffering/dying in flight, usually in the hold.

 

[scats]

A big problem in this instance is actually the weight. You’d be surprised but they will move passengers sometimes to balance the weight out on a plane, so a half tonne animal moving around could cause quite a problem.

 

[ycbm]

The question is how it was in a crate that it could get out of?
.

 

[Birker2020]

A big problem in this instance is actually the weight. You’d be surprised but they will move passengers sometimes to balance the weight out on a plane, so a half tonne animal moving around could cause quite a problem.

It's for that very reason that boxes and crates in holds are strapped down firmly to prevent deviance in weight distribution.

 

[Birker2020]

The question is how it was in a crate that it could get out of?
.

I would imagine horses can get out of anything when they are in full panic flight mode.

I've heard of horses getting out of top rear doors in a trailer before now.

 

[ycbm]

I would imagine horses can get out of anything when they are in full panic flight mode.

I've heard of horses getting out of top rear doors in a trailer before now.

Because of the consequences, it should be impossible in a plane. It's perfectly possible to construct a create that a horse can't break out of.


That plane turned back, what if it had happened in mid Atlantic?
.

 

[Horseysheepy]

Reminds me of that scene in International Velvet when a competitors panicking horse had to be Pts on board the plane.

 

[ycbm]

Reminds me of that scene in International Velvet when a competitors panicking horse had to be Pts on board the plane.

I believe they always carry a captive bolt gun when horses are on board? Loose bullets on a plane are a bit of a problem!
.

 

[The Fuzzy Furry]

I believe they always carry a captive bolt gun when horses are on board? Loose bullets on a plane are a bit of a problem!
.

Certainly used to when I did flying groom in 85 to 87, plus the usual iv etc.
PTS is a very very last resort and was ok'd by flight captain as he was ultimately responsible for the cargo.
Never had a loose one, but did have a broken cannon 4 hrs into a Montreal trip.

 

[ycbm]

I looked it up out of interest. It looks like they travel them in create so small they can't move to get any force into an attempt to escape, chained down so they can't get up over the front. I wonder what went wrong on the cargo plane where one got loose?

 

[Pinkvboots]

They look like Arab's ❤

 

[Red-1]

Having seen a couple of horses in full panic mode when on transport, they can kick, plunge or throw their way out of anything.

 

[TGM]

Later reports make it sound like the horse wasn't totally loose but had got it's front legs over the door of the crate and badly injured itself and had to be euthanised.

 

[MurphysMinder]

Sadly I've read that it had to be pts due to injuries.
Sorry, TGM posted while I was typing.

 

[Snowfilly]

Reminds me of that scene in International Velvet when a competitors panicking horse had to be Pts on board the plane.

Which was based on a real life incident when one of the American team horses had to be put down on a flight to I think the Helsinki Olympics after he panicked and was a risk to the safety of the plane.

There was a similar scene in one of the Dick Francis novels, which I suspect was based on reality as well.

Terribly sad ending for this horse, I’d hoped he was ok.

 

[Orangehorse]

How sad, but it makes your blood go cold when you think about it. I can imagine a thoroughly paniced horse simply thrashing around and kicking at everything.

 

[The Fuzzy Furry]

How sad, but it makes your blood go cold when you think about it. I can imagine a thoroughly paniced horse simply thrashing around and kicking at everything.

The worst part about that is that it often sets off others who also then join in the panic.

 

[FinnishLapphund]

How terribly sad for the horse itself, its owner/owners, groom, and anyone else involved. Perhaps it's still possible to make some sort of safety improvements, but at the same time, it's probably impossible to make it 100% safe.

Pointless note, but I assume there used to be dangers already back when horses was shipped by boats.

 

[photo_jo]

I can't find the photos from when I flew a horse to Australia. The crates were much higher and more substantial but then they were flying the Coolmore and Rathbarry shuttle stallions back back to Ireland on the return trip

 

[Pippity]

This video shows the some of the Olympic dressage horses travelling to Tokyo, and they're in far more substantial crates than in the photo above. They do mention, however, that the Olympic horses are flying 'business class' in broad crates, so it looks like there are different standards.

If Blue was suitably panicked, she'd absolutely be able to get out of the crate in the photo - or at least far enough out to cause serious issues. I think the business class crate would be more likely to hold her.

 

[Steerpike]

I've heard the size of the crate depends on how much you pay, first class, business and economy as such. One of my Arabs flew from Dubai to France and I could imagine he would have been a nightmare as he has such a short attention span

 

[Caol Ila]

When Gypsum flew from JFK to Amsterdam, she was in a fully-enclosed crate. But it looks as though not all of them are.

Poor horse.

 

[FinnishLapphund]

When Gypsum flew from JFK to Amsterdam, she was in a fully-enclosed crate. But it looks as though not all of them are.

Poor horse.

Even the horse crates I've seen pictures of which I assume could be called fully-enclosed, have still not had the actual horse box take up the whole inner area, without they've still had an access area in front of the horse box (within the outer fully-enclosed crate), which a panicked horse hypothetically could try to get to.

E.g. like this one

Either way, before reading Pippity's reply, I don't think I had really thought about that there was different "ticket" options also for horses, but according to my googling:
Economy class/coach = 3 horses per crate.
Business class = 2 horses per crate.
First class = 1 horse per crate.

 

[Michen]

I looked it up out of interest. It looks like they travel them in create so small they can't move to get any force into an attempt to escape, chained down so they can't get up over the front. I wonder what went wrong on the cargo plane where one got loose?

View attachment 128112

I think it depends on the plane. Boggle travelled in a crate that was totally self contained and had a roof. Like a trailer but inside a plane.

 

[Michen]

Like the one above

 

[Michen]

And those crates aren’t “business class”. Boggle flew in one- economy. But the open ones do exist I’ve mainly seen them on an international transporter on insta I follow, flying polo ponies around.

 

[teapot]

Am fairly sure the 'class' comes down to how many horses you have in one crate/pallet, so economy is three or four, business is two, first is one.

If it was an open crate and horse got stuck/injured not surprised they turned around. International Velvet memories flashing back!

 

[Caol Ila]

Gypsum flew coach. She was in a crate with two other horses. It looked like the one in FinnishLapphund's post. It cost about half as much as sending her across the Atlantic in her own crate.

 

[Teaselmeg]

I have it on good authority that the horse didn't escape, but got stuck in the crate. Sadly I've read that he was subsequently put down, how sad.

The crates they travel in are very solid and I think most airlines use this type of crate now. You cannot jump out of them.