An eight-year-old Maine Coon cat was forgotten on a plane and ended up flying three times between New Zealand and Australia in 24 hours.
As per BBC, a cat named Mittens was supposed to fly from Christchurch to Melbourne on January 12 but her cage was mistakenly left behind in the plane’s cargo hold.
Margo Neas, Mittens’ owner, waited at Melbourne airport for three hours expecting her cat to arrive.
However, she was then told by airport staff that the plane had already flown back to New Zealand with Mitten still on board.
As per the sources, during the flight back to New Zealand, the plane’s heating system was turned on to ensure Mittens stayed comfortable.
Although the cat had lost some weight, she was otherwise safe and unharmed.
Afterwards, she was put on another flight to Melbourne, where she was reunited with her owner, Neas.
The owner told NBC that airport ground staff had informed her and her son about the incident.
"They said: 'Look, we have located your cat - but it's actually on the return flight to Christchurch...'
"And I said: 'When did you discover that the cat wasn't taken off the plane?' And they said: 'We've only just discovered now.' And I said: 'How can this happen?'"
The investigation into the incident is ongoing, but it is believed that a stored wheelchair may have blocked the baggage handler’s view, which is why Mittens’s cage was overlooked.
