Engineers found an owl napping inside the engine of a Virgin Australia plane

Engineers were surprised to find a stowaway hiding inside the engine of a plane when they conducted pre-flight checks.

The staff with Virgin Australia spotted a small owl taking a nap and minding its own business when the plane was parked in Melbourne Airport.

"This owl didn't give a hoot where it napped!" tweeted Virgin Australia. "The cute little guy was found during our pre-flight checks."

The team of engineers rescued the bird and assessed it before releasing it back into the wild.

The owner of Virgin, Richard Branson, noticed the tweet and responded: "Just when I thought I'd seen it owl… Great job team," to which the team said "You're talon us!"

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This isn't the first time a bird has shown up unexpectedly at an airport.

Earlier this year, a stowaway mynah bird managed to board a plane from Singapore to London, and no one noticed it for 12 hours.

Earlier this month, a rogue flamingo caused a commotion at Palma de Mallorca Airport in Spain when it sauntered right in front of a moving plane on a runway.