Published 18:02 IST, September 16th 2019
Agartala-bound Air India flight delayed after bees enter cockpit
In a bizarre incident, curious bees latched themselves on Air India flight's cockpit in Agartala bound flight to Kolkata, delay the flight for around an hour
- India News
- 2 min read
In a bizarre incident, an Air India (AI) flight bound to Agartala in Tripura was delayed for around an hour after a swarm of bees engulfed the airfield site and entered the plane's cockpit at the Kolkata airport, reported ANI. The incident took place on September 16, when the flight, carrying over 100 passengers, was taxiing on the runway due to technical issues, an airport official said.
Angry bees
'The incident happened yesterday at Kolkata airport when the flight was taxiing on the runway due to technical issues. Later, bees entered in the cockpit and airfield site and it was a challenging task for the AI engineers to rectify and attend to the aircraft's glitches' ,the official said.
The plane was scheduled to depart at 9:40 am when a confused swarm of bees landed on the window just before the plane was about to take off. The plane was carrying 136 passengers, including 18 members’ of the Bangladeshi delegation. The Bangladeshi delegation included Information Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud and renowned actress Rokeya Prachi. They were on their way to the Tripura capital to attend a three-day film festival being organized by the Bangladesh government.
The swarm of bees, after landing on the cockpit window, made sure that the plane couldn't proceed on its scheduled time, refusing to budge when the ground staff attempted to shoo them away. The bees, angered at being disturbed from their resting place at the cockpit, started attacking ground staff.
Water sprinkled to get bees off the plane
Eventually, the next plan of action was decided and the officials said that the airport's fire brigade team was called in, who then managed to remove the bees by sprinkling water.
"Later, the airport's fire brigade team was called in for removing the bees from the aircraft. The team sprinkled water for removing bees and succeeded finally. The above exercise took around an hour," the official added.
Soon after the bee fiasco, the flight departed for Agartala.
Updated 19:06 IST, September 16th 2019