HOUSTON – A swarm of bees on a plane’s wing led to a flight being delayed at Bush Intercontinental Airport Wednesday.
In pictures shared to KPRC 2, you can see the bees on the wing of a Delta Airlines plane.
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The person who took the photos, Robert Earl Glenn II, shared the experience on Facebook.
“At least it’s not snakes on a plane, just bees near a wing,” Glenn wrote.
Delta Airlines confirmed the incident and said it led to an approximately three hour delay for Delta flight 1682 from IAH to Atlanta.
“Bee-lieve it or not, Delta flight1682 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,” the airlines statement read.
Delta said the flight was delayed out of concern for the welfare of the bees and to ensure that no surfaces of the airplane were contaminated.
Delta said a pushback of the plane with no customers aboard using ground equipment safely shook the bees loose after previous safe actions did not prove successful. The flight has since departed and is expected to land in Atlanta around 7:00 pm EST.
“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,” the airline said.