A horse on board forces cargo plane to return to JFK Airport

According to air traffic control, a 747 cargo plane, flying from New York to Belgium had to make a second landing at JFK International Airport when a horse escaped its stall.

The audio from air traffic control indicates that a horse broke free from its stall aboard a 747 cargo plane that was traveling from New York to Belgium, forcing the plane to make a return trip to John F. Kennedy International Airport.

The radio clip claims that the horse broke loose 30 minutes after departure.

According to FlightRadar24, a pilot on Thursday informed the air traffic control center that a horse had gotten out of its stall and therefore they had to return to JFK while the Boeing 747 was only about 31,000 feet in the air.

A pilot can be heard stating, "We are a cargo plane with a live animal, a horse, on board," in the audio recorded by air traffic control. The equine triumphed against its enclosure. Flying is not a problem, but we have to return to New York because we are unable to secure the horse."

The recording indicates that the flight's weight led it to perform a U-turn off the coast of Boston and dump roughly 20 tons of fuel into the Atlantic, "10 miles west of Martha's Vinyard."

The pilot asked for a veterinarian to be at JFK when the plane arrived, in the middle of the fuel dump.

FlightRadar24 reports that the aircraft managed to take off shortly after and arrived at Liege Airport on Friday morning.