New York â€"  An escaped monkey delayed a Beijing-bound flight for four hours at New York's JFK Airport on Thursday.

The monkey escaped its crate in the cargo hold of an Air China Boeing 747 scheduled to depart at 4:50pm, Port Authority police said.

Emergency services officers and an airport worker caught the monkey and handed it over to the airline. The animal never got out of the jet's cargo hold.

The foot-tall monkey was one of about 50 to 60 being shipped to China for medical research, police sources said, with one saying, "He was a slippery little beast."

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