Passenger captures the unfolding drama after scores of bees swarm plane’s wing
We’ve all heard of snakes on a plane – but bees on a plane is pretty un-bee-lieveable.
But this is exactly what happened on a Delta flight from Houston to Atlanta which was delayed for three hours after a swarm of bees gathered around one of the wings.
The bee-zarre incident, which unfolded on Wednesday, was documented by passenger Anjali Enjeti.
She posted: ‘My flight leaving Houston is delayed because bees have congregated on the tip of one of the wings. They won’t let us board until they remove the bees. But how on earth will this happen? Won’t they leave the wing when we take off?’
Anjali sat in a window seat and watched the drama unfold as a bee keeper was called in to collect them.
But it turned out the bee keeper was not allowed to touch the plane and pest control were not allowed to spray it.
Airport staff did not have a hose to spray the bees with water and the fire department could not be called either.
So it was up to the captain to taxi the plane in the hope the bees left the wing.
Ground equipment was eventually used used to push back the aircraft with no passengers on board – and the bees flew off the wing.
The flight finally landed in Atlanta at around 7.30pm ET time, according to FlightRadar24.
A Delta spokesperson said: ‘Bee-lieve it or not, Delta flight 1682 from Houston-Bush to Atlanta took a delay this afternoon after a friendly group of bees evidently wanted to talk shop with the winglet of our airplanes, no doubt to share the latest about flying conditions at the airport.
‘We are told this kind of swarming is rare but not unheard of occurrence and can occur on virtually any outdoor structure in climates/environments where bees are found in nature
‘We apologise to our customers for the delay in their travel plans.’
There was a real-life snakes on a plane incident this week after a woman managed to sneak on 22 of them onboard a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Chennai.
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