Swarm of bees delay flight for one hour in India

(MENAFN) A swarm of bees caused an unexpected disruption at Surat International Airport in India, delaying an IndiGo flight by over an hour, according to reports.

The bees clustered around the aircraft’s luggage door, preventing ground staff from proceeding with final preparations. Passengers had already boarded the plane, which was scheduled to fly from Surat, located in the western state of Gujarat, to Jaipur.

Initial efforts to disperse the insects using smoke were unsuccessful. Airport authorities then called in the fire brigade, who sprayed water to clear the swarm.

“We informed the airport’s fire team. They used a jet of water from a fire tender to remove the bees from the open shutter,” an airport official stated, according to reports. Once the bees were removed, the aircraft was able to depart after a delay of about one hour.

This is not the first time such an incident has occurred in India. Reports noted similar episodes in 2019 and 2020, where bee swarms disrupted Air India flights in Kolkata—once near the cockpit of a Boeing 737 and another time near the cargo hold.

The country’s aviation sector, while growing rapidly, has experienced several operational challenges recently. In June, a UK-bound Boeing 787 carrying 242 passengers and crew crashed into a medical college hostel shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad.

On Tuesday, the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau submitted a preliminary report on the June crash to the Ministry of Civil Aviation. However, details of the report’s conclusions have not been made public.

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