Flight cancelled after huge bee swarm settles on plane wing and wouldn't budge

18 January 2023 , 17:48

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A swarm of bees on the wing of the plane in Rio de Janeiro (Image: CEN)

A flight was grounded while on the tarmac preparing for departure, after the aircraft was overwhelmed by a huge swarm of bees.

The LATAM airlines plane - from Rio de Janeiro to Sao Paulo in Brazil - had been scheduled to take off at 10.30am on 17th January.

But as passengers were getting ready to board, the swarm settled on the aircraft's port wing near one of the engines.

Safety officials finally cancelled the flight after 1pm, when it became clear that the bees would not budge.

LATAM said the flight had to be cancelled for safety reasons and that all affected passengers had been put on alternative flights.

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It was not clear if beekeepers had to be called in to remove the swarm.

It is similarly unclear where the bees had come from, and why they had settled on the plane.

The plane in Rio de Janeiro , Brazil, on Tuesday (CEN)

Bees usually swarm when the queen leaves the hive for a new home and settles with the rest of the bees around her while she waits for the new location.

The Mirror reported on a similar incident back in 2020 when two flights were delayed after the planes were swarmed by the same bees.

The swarm settled on a pair of Vistara Airlines aircrafts, which were parked in the same bay of Kolkata airport in India 16 hours apart.

In both instances, it reportedly caused a delay of an hour, and water hoses were needed to drive the bees away.

Video footage showed the moment airport staff used a water cannon to wash the swarm off one of the jumbo jets.

It was unclear where the bees had come from and why they had settled on the plane (CEN)

Shocking photographs showed the bugs covering part of an aircraft at eastern India's West Bengal airport on November 29.

The bees appeared packed together in a dense swarm before a fire engine arrived to wash the tiny insects off.

The aircraft had arrived in Kolkata the day before and had spent the night at the airport.

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But the next day, the scheduled flight to Delhi was delayed when the swarm of bees arrived.

The bees were detected before passengers boarded the flight.

William McGee