Rat on a plane sparks worries for Sri Lanka's airline

Sri Lanka's national airline on Tuesday blamed a rat for grounding a plane for three days, sparking chaotic delays and fears it will scare off investors for the cash-strapped carrier.

The stowaway rodent was spotted enjoying the SriLankan Airlines Airbus A330 flight from the Pakistani city of Lahore on Thursday, triggering an aircraft search to ensure it had not chewed through critical components.

An airline official said the plane has now resumed flights, but that the grounding had a knock-on effect on the entire schedule.

"The aircraft was grounded for three days at Colombo," an airline official said, declining to be named. "The plane could not be flown without making sure that the rat was accounted for. It was found dead."

The state-owned airline, which had accumulated losses of more than $1.8 billion at the end of March 2023, has three other aircraft grounded for over a year out of a fleet of 23.

The carrier has no foreign exchange to pay for mandatory overhauling of the engines.

Aviation minister Nimal Siripala de Silva told reporters the errant rodent might scare off "the few investors" interested in taking over the debt-burdened airline.

Successive governments have attempted to sell it without success. A previous government offered the airline for one dollar, but there were no takers.