An Air Canada flight from Halifax to Toronto was delayed for about 5 hours when a cat named Ripples escaped from its carrier in the passenger cabin.

At one point the engines were turned off and the lights out so as to soothe the cat. The crew actively searched while the owner called its name.

Finally, Ripples was found hiding in the electrical wiring in the cockpit. Then, several hours were spent making sure none of the electrical circuits were damaged.

The passengers were allowed to deplane, and some of them found other flights.

If the searchers had ever driven anywhere with a loose cat in the car, they'd have known to look especially hard in the cockpit because cats just naturally gravitate to sit under the driver's feet. I drove 800 miles once with Buddy the Interstate Cat on the floor at my feet. I used the cruise control a lot, and it was interstate through Wyoming - no traffic, no braking.

Later, we discovered the reason he did that was he thought it was breezier down there. We bought a certain model of car that has air conditioning vents under the front seat, and Buddy is content to ride on the floor in the back seat now.