Cheetah delays Qantas flight in Australia

Passengers on a Qantas flight were delayed when the pilot reported difficulties in getting one passenger on board - a cheetah.

"We're sorry for the delay, but we're having some problems loading the cheetah," the pilot reportedly told passengers on board the domestic flight as it sat on the tarmac at Melbourne airport.

Qantas said the Adelaide-bound flight was delayed for 36 minutes after ground staff had problems loading the pallet carrying the big cat, which was bound for a South Australian zoo.

"It was nothing to do with the cheetah being upset," a spokeswoman for the airline told AFP. "It was purely just loading the pallet onto the aircraft."

The Australian airline, which has been been in the news lately after an engine blast on one its long-haul Airbus A380s grounded its superjumbo fleet for three weeks, said the animal was placed on the next flight to Adelaide.

Qantas said that it was regularly called upon to transport zoo attractions such as the cheetah.

"We move tens of thousands of animals each year," the spokeswoman said.

"We've recently moved some fairy penguins; we've moved a hippo, gorilla, crocodile, Tasmanian devils. We move livestock."

Asked whether the airline, known as the "flying kangaroo" had ever moved its bounding namesake, the spokeswoman replied: "We probably have."

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