That will bee a long delay

Here at EUclaim we hear tons of reasons why a flight can be delayed. Some explanations are more common than others, but a small number of explanations are downright strange. Did you know bees can delay a flight without even getting on the aircraft? Well, they can. And they did.

Bees damage airplane

Back in 2007, the pilot of a flight from Bournemouth (United Kingdom) to Faro (Portugal) noticed something was wrong with one of the engines of the Boeing 737 he was flying. It started to surge an hour after they had flown  into a swarm of bees. Almost 200 passengers were affected when the damaged airplane had to return to the UK as it was ruled unsafe to fly.

Animals causing flight delays

More commonly we hear about bird strikes that delay flights, but there have been quite some variations in species of animals. Earlier this month a cargo flight landing in Australia had to deal with a kangaroo on the runway, and there have been real life instances of “Snakes on a Plane.”

Whoever wants to deal with dangerous spiders, snakes and scorpions doesn’t even have to go to Australia anymore. Just getting on a flight to the island of doom seems to be enough. Qantas in particular has a snake problem, as the slithery creatures have been reported as “escaped” or “missing” on several flights. 

Puerto Rico actually spends a lot of money each year to get rid of iguanas at the airport.  These reptiles seem to enjoy sunbathing on the runways, but cause airplanes to be unable to land. At least the iguanas didn’t find their way onto the aircraft. They can get up to about 1.8 meters long, and would have struggled with the rather limited legroom.

Although we haven’t been able to confirm the events, a flight crew in Mexico hasn’t been that lucky. They found themselves in an airplane full of fire ants. The little crawlers are known to reside in air conditioners of buildings, but apparently sought out a home with a wider view. It took cleaners and exterminators five hours to get rid of the thousands of ants.

Photo: Flickr.com

Free flight check
Previous blog
ECJ ruling on Van der Lans V KLM – airline industry could face compensation pay outs in the region of €400 million per year
Next blog
Behind the scenes: the story of missed connections
Questions? Live Chat!
1 1