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There are plenty of things that can delay a flight – bad weather, ground delays, mechanical issues – but a cat getting loose and hiding somewhere in the cockpit normally isn’t one of them.

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However, that’s what happened to Air Canada flight 603 from Halifax to Toronto on Wednesday morning.

The flight, which was scheduled to take off at 5:40 a.m., was delayed for four hours after Ripples the cat — brought on board by one of the plane’s passengers — got loose from its carrier and hid inside the plane’s cockpit.

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“They were of course first looking [for Ripples] in the cabin, as I understand it. Then it became apparent that it had gone into the cockpit,” says Peter Spurway, vice-president of corporate communications for the Halifax Airport Authority.

“Then it squirmed down into a little space and the game was on.”

Although Mr. Spurway says he doesn’t know how the cat got loose, he says it was just hiding from the people trying to find it – it wasn’t hurt or stuck.