A raccoon that scurried into the duct system of an Air Canada jet that was set to leave for Toronto caused a seven-hour flight delay.

Ground crews in Saskatoon were connecting an air-conditioning unit to the plane Thursday night and apparently disturbed the furry bandit who had been inside the unit鈥檚 hose.

鈥淥ur crews worked with the animal control experts to extricate the animal which was unharmed,鈥� Air Canada spokeswoman Angela Mah said Friday in an email. 鈥淭his is the first time we鈥檙e aware of such an incident.鈥�

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Damien Lee, one of 79 passengers, said the flight was due to leave Saskatoon at 2:50 p.m. He said that before passengers boarded, he could see a worker looking spooked as he was inspecting the jet. The worker talked to his colleagues and then started taking pictures under the plane.

Passengers initially thought it was funny.

鈥淔or the most part, it was novelty,鈥� said Lee, an assistant professor at the University of Saskatchewan, who was heading to Toronto to hunt for an apartment.

鈥淧eople were guessing what it was at first. They were like, you know, holding mock bets, not really for real, but they were wondering and shouting out their ideas of what it could be.鈥�

Pilots came down to assess the scene and, within an hour, animal control experts were brought in to try to catch the raccoon. Workers started taking panels off the plane with screwdrivers and hand drills, Lee said.

Handlers brought out instruments that looked like lassos to try to snag the animal, he said.

鈥淚t was a circus,鈥� Lee said in a phone interview from Toronto where the flight finally landed at 3 a.m.

鈥淲hat can you do? It鈥檚 not like somebody did this on purpose. This is an animal in there.鈥�

Eventually, the raccoon dropped out and was escorted off the property unharmed, said Andrew Leeming, vice-president of operations at the airport. Leeming added that it was like herding cattle.

How the raccoon got into the unit鈥檚 hose is still a mystery.

鈥淚t might have been in the ground equipment,鈥� Leeming said. 鈥滻t鈥檚 unlikely that it would have travelled from Toronto, but at the same time, we don鈥檛 see raccoons around the property, ever. That was kind of unusual.鈥�

Air Canada said it carried out a full aircraft maintenance inspection before the flight finally took off at 10 p.m.

Even though this wasn鈥檛 Lee鈥檚 longest flight delay, he said it was definitely his weirdest airplane experience.

鈥淚t was like, 鈥楬ow the hell did that even get in there?鈥欌��

The Canadian Press

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