A swarm of bees caused a long delay to a Delta Air Lines flight

A swarm of bees caused a several-hour delay to a Delta Air Lines flight on Wednesday May 3 as the insects clustered on the plane’s wing, forcing the airline to postpone the flight while it attempted to remove them.

The flight was scheduled to leave Houston for Atlanta but was delayed until later that day due to the bee swarm. 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”.

A passenger tweeted about the event and suggested calling a beekeeper to remove the insects, but it was reported that pest control couldn’t spray the plane, and the beekeeper wasn’t called because they weren’t allowed to touch the aircraft. Eventually, the bees were shaken loose when the airplane pushed back from the gate, without any passengers aboard, according to a spokesperson.