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 unitsa国际传媒檚 hose.

sa国际传媒淥ur crews worked with the animal control experts to extricate the animal which was unharmed,sa国际传媒� Air Canada spokeswoman Angela Mah said Friday in an email. sa国际传媒淭his is the first time wesa国际传媒檙e aware of such an incident.sa国际传媒�

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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.

sa国际传媒淔or the most part, it was novelty,sa国际传媒� said Lee, an assistant professor at the University of Saskatchewan, who was heading to Toronto to hunt for an apartment.

sa国际传媒淧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.sa国际传媒�

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.

sa国际传媒淚t was a circus,sa国际传媒� Lee said in a phone interview from Toronto where the flight finally landed at 3 a.m.

sa国际传媒淲hat can you do? Itsa国际传媒檚 not like somebody did this on purpose. This is an animal in there.sa国际传媒�

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 unitsa国际传媒檚 hose is still a mystery.

sa国际传媒淚t might have been in the ground equipment,sa国际传媒� Leeming said. sa国际传媒滻tsa国际传媒檚 unlikely that it would have travelled from Toronto, but at the same time, we donsa国际传媒檛 see raccoons around the property, ever. That was kind of unusual.sa国际传媒�

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

Even though this wasnsa国际传媒檛 Leesa国际传媒檚 longest flight delay, he said it was definitely his weirdest airplane experience.

sa国际传媒淚t was like, sa国际传媒楬ow the hell did that even get in there?sa国际传媒檚a国际传媒�

The Canadian Press

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