NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- A horse aboard a 747 cargo plane that escaped from its stall forced the plane to return to John F. Kennedy International Airport last week, air traffic control audio revealed Wednesday.
The charter airline Air Atlanta Icelandic had reached around 31,000 feet near Martha’s Vineyard when the crew contacted Air Traffic Control in Boston to report that the horse had gotten loose and that they needed to return to JFK on Thursday, according to FlightRadar24.
Air traffic control audio captured the pilot saying, “We are a cargo plane with a live animal, a horse, on board. The horse managed to escape its stall. There's no issue with flying, but we need to go back to New York as we can't re-secure the horse.”
A veterinarian took care of the horse at JFK, and the flight was able to take off a short time later and arrived at Liege Airport in Belgium on Friday morning, FlightRadar24 added.
It remains unclear how the horse managed to escape.