A swarm of bees delays a Delta flight by three hours

(CNN) A swarm of bees landed on a parked Delta Airlines flight Wednesday, delaying a flight from Houston to Atlanta by nearly three hours.

“Bee or not, Delta Flight 1682 from Houston Bush to Atlanta was delayed yesterday afternoon after a friendly group of bees wanted to talk to our wingman, and no doubt about sharing the latest news of flight conditions at the airport,” the airline said in a playful statement after photos of its websites teased. Social networking sensation.

Delta Airlines did not say exactly what actions were being considered to resolve the situation, but in the end, the bees were displaced by pushing the plane back out of the gate using ground equipment with no passengers on board.

The welfare of the bees and ensuring that the aircraft surfaces were not contaminated were factors leading to the delay.

Delta has apologized to customers for the flight delay.

Twitter user Anjali Engiti Twitter live The incident is from inside George Bush Intercontinental Airport, reporting various procedures floated and rejected to get bees to take off from their perch on the wing of an Airbus A320.

Enjeti mentions beekeepers and pest control in its live updates, apparently gleaned from Delta ads and word of mouth from other passengers. She also gave stroke after stroke maneuvering to get a position next to the airport windows in hopes of watching the beekeeping process, with snacks for display.

Sadly, no beekeepers appeared, according to Engetti’s account, much to her disappointment.

“It will be a highlight of my life to see a beekeeper remove the wing of an airplane. It will be hard to let go of this. The disappointment is real,” she tweeted.

Engetti did not immediately respond to CNN’s attempt to contact her.

Bees at airports

Swarms of bees on planes are rare but unheard of. swarm of bees Air India flight delayed in 2019. Water cannons were used in this case to displace the bees on board the scheduled flight from Kolkata to Agartala.

In 2016, it was an F-22 Raptor fighter jet Temporarily grounded by 20,000 bees. A beekeeper helped solve this situation in Virginia.

At passenger airports, beekeepers are becoming more common.

A 2022 report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine details a number of airports in the United States and internationally that have established “pollinator-friendly practices and programs that restore bee habitats and bring public awareness and appreciation for these magnificent insects.”

According to the report, Hamburg Airport in Germany was the first airport to use an airport apiary in 1999. Chicago O’Hare Airport was the first US airport to add a main apiary.

The Federal Aviation Administration is participate in the research related to bee programs at the airport.

The airport implicated in the bee-related delay Wednesday hasn’t joined the airport’s beekeeping efforts — yet.

“The initiative is being explored for implementation at the Busch Airport campus, but we do not currently have a beekeeping program at the airport,” airport spokesman Augusto Bernal told CNN by email.