A 495-pound gorilla traveling in a Delta Airlines jet made such a disturbance that the pilot and passengers could hear a "thumpa, thumpa" coming from the cargo hold when the plane was on the ground in Salt Lake City en route to Seattle Tuesday.
The pilot returned the plane to the terminal and the gorilla's airline journey came to an end."Vip," a 17-year-old lowland gorilla, was first loaded on the jet in Boston, where he had been housed at Boston's Franklin Park Zoo. He became agitated, banging on his crate, after being confined for a number of hours.
Once taken off the plane, Vip was calmed with Valium. Dr. Ross Anderson, Hogle Zoo veterinarian, met Shanna Abeles, a Franklin Park Zoo keeper accompanying Vip on the trip, at the Salt Lake airport. They took Vip by truck to Hogle Zoo for the night.
Zoo officials decided Wednesday that Vip wouldn't have to put up with any more planes. He was shipped by truck late Wednesday afternoon and arrived at the Seattle zoo Thursday.
Vip's being moved "first class. He's got music, his handler is sitting with him and he's got food. It beats the heck out of that dark (airplane) cargo hold," Lee Werle, mammal curator at the Seattle zoo, told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.