Student barred from taking pet cat on flight at last minute

A research student’s frantic efforts to ferry his pet cat from Bengaluru to Patna failed after an Air India pilot reportedly refused to allow it inside the cabin on Wednesday afternoon. Eventually, he had to wait another 13 hours to board the next flight.

For Lakhanlal, a junior research fellow at the National Institute of Technology, Karnataka, the ordeal started on Wednesday morning. “I booked a flight from Bengaluru to Patna through Air India so that I can take my cat with me. I came from Mangalore by cab,” he said in a tweet.

The flight was at 12.50 pm, but he reached the airline counter at the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) at 9.45 am.