LONDON (AFP) - When Tony Cooper and Lisa Kingscott left their four-seater light plane parked in a field to have lunch with friends nearby, they paid little attention to the cows quietly grazing nearby.
Big mistake.
When the pair returned to their vintage aircraft, they were astonished to find that the herd of bullocks had developed an unlikely taste for its fuselage and were munching their way through a large section, the Daily Mail newspaper said on Tuesday.
The cows caused around 10,000 pounds (15,000 euros, 18,000 dollars) in damage to the Auster J1N craft, built in 1946, the paper said.
"We were going back to the plane to fly home and we could see several bullocks standing around it, and there were gaping holes in the body of the plane," said Kingscott, who has piloted light planes for 16 years.
"I was speechless. I have never seen anything like it," she was quoted as telling the paper.
Closer inspection revealed that the cattle had munched away on large sections of the canvas surrounding the plane's metal strut frame, meaning it had to be dismantled and carried home on a trailer.
The duo, who co-own the plane with three other people, said they regularly made the 100-mile (160-kilometre) round trip to see their friends in Kentchurch, near Hereford, and always parked in the same field.
The matter is now in the hands of their -- presumably puzzled -- insurers
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