In an unusual incident, a mouse in the cockpit of a Norwegian airline delayed a flight to New York by five hours.

The incident happened on Tuesday aboard a Norwegian Air Shuttle airplane when a mouse was spotted while the plane was preparing to take off. 

Staff frantically began to search the cabin for the rodent, but the flight ended up being delayed by five hours until the mouse was finally captured, 'The Local' reported. 

"A mouse was discovered aboard the plane, which delayed the departure," Norwegian Air Shuttle's spokesperson, Charlotte Holmberg Jacobsson, said.

According to Romerikes Blad, a local newspaper, Jacobsson said that mice are not often found aboard an aircraft. 

"In such situations, a pest control company must board the plane. The mouse needs to be found and then removed. In addition we need to check the whole plane. There are cases of mice having chewed through cables or the like," Jacobsson said.