An early-morning IndiGo flight out of Surat, India, was all set for takeoff. Passengers were boarded. Luggage was loaded. But instead of lifting off at 4:20 a.m. as scheduled, the plane sat on the tarmac while a massive swarm of bees colonized the cargo door.
Not a few bees. Not a stray hive. Thousands of them. Video shows a thick, pulsing clump of insects glued to the aircraft like something out of Candyman.
Airport staff tried smoke first, a method that usually works for beekeepers, but the bees weren’t interested. So they brought in the fire brigade to hose them down, which, if anything, made the situation worse. The water spray seemed to attract even more bees and caused mild chaos among ground crews trying to avoid getting stung.
After about an hour of trial, error, and increasingly soggy improvisation, the bees finally dispersed. The plane took off at 5:26 a.m., roughly 66 minutes late. Nobody was hurt, but everyone on board had to wait out the insect drama with zero explanation and no clue what was happening outside their windows.
Swarm of Bees Delays Flight for Nearly an Hour
According to the airline, it was a “bee incident” and “not under our control,” which is a pretty fair way to describe any scenario involving thousands of bees descending on a commercial airplane before sunrise.
Strangely, this isn’t even the first time this has happened. Last year, another IndiGo flight—this time in Mumbai—was grounded for nearly three hours when a swarm took over the wing. The common factor, beyond the bees themselves, seems to be bad timing, warm engines, and a mystery no one has fully solved.
Some blame the heat. Others say it might be reflective surfaces on the plane that confuse migrating bees. It’s unclear why planes keep attracting them, but it’s clearly becoming a pattern.
Surat airport officials say they’re reviewing protocols to stop future bee invasions, but no specific prevention strategy has been shared yet. Bee swarms aren’t standard airport protocol, but apparently they’re not off the table either.
Add them to the growing list of things complicating modern air travel.
The post A Massive Swarm of Bees Delayed a Flight—and It Wasn’t the First Time appeared first on VICE.
