A Delta Airlines flight from Houston to Atlanta in the US saw an unexpected delay caused by a swarm of bees that congregated on one of the wings of the aeroplane. A commuter gave a blow-by-blow account of how the airlines tried to remove the bees at the Bush Intercontinental Airport in Texas, US.
Passenger Anjali Enjeti (@AnjaliEnjeti) posted photos of the bees on Twitter and wrote, “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?”
In the next series of tweets, Enjeti wrote that the authorities were contemplating removing the bees by calling in a beekeeper or pest control but eventually did not employ these methods. Enjeti explained, “Update from captain himself 1.) Bee keeper isn’t allowed to touch airplanes! So they’re not coming! 2) Pest control is not allowed to spray planes. 3) airport does not have hose to spray them off with water! 4) fire department can’t come — can’t understand reason why.”
At one point, the authorities tried using exhaust smoke from other airport vehicles to drive away the bees but the bees didn’t budge. In her detailed tweets, Enjeti documented the airline’s various bee removal tactics and wrote: “Somebody started walking out to the plane’s wing with a hose. People at the gate cheered. Hose person then retreated with the hose. Everyone at gate sighed.”
After almost three hours, the bees departed after the airplane’s engine was turned on. Talking about this simple trick that worked, Enjeti said: “As soon as our plane’s engine turned on, THE BEES LEFT!!! All Delta had to do was TURN ON THE PLANE.”
