Salt Lake Tribune | 1919-03-09 | Page 53 | Rudder of Airplane is Attacked by Rat

RUDDER OF AIRPLANE IS ATTACKED BY RAT Eodent Nearly Causes Failure of Notable Not-able Plight, but Day Is Saved by Strategy. j By NORMAN WATSON (International News Service Staff Corre-i Corre-i spondent.) LONDON, March 8. The flight of Ma- jor General Salmond and his party from Cairo to Australia might have come to a sudden end, owing to the activities of a rat, but strategy saved the day. The rat joined the party at Chabar, evidently attracted by the supplies the ! plane took on board on landing there, and was heard nibbiing incessantly when the airplane landed again at Karachi. The rodent, however, could not -be caught or discovered. After leaving Karachi tte rat continued contin-ued to gnaw, and, as it was feared that it might oe damaging some important ! part of the machine; it was decided to see if cold would have any deterrent effect. ef-fect. Accordingly the plane was taken to a height of over 10,000 feet. This proved too much for a rat nurtured in the warmth of the Persian gulf. Frozen or numbed with cold, it could apparently hold on no longer, and dropped into space. When the machine landed it was found that the high-flying rat had been gnawing gnaw-ing away a part of the rudder control.