The chaos caused by a swarm of bees occurred on two planes at Kolkata airport, causing both flights to get delayed as it swarmed the plane on Sunday and the next day.
The bees first appeared on the Vistara plane on Sunday while waiting in the hangar before boarding, then reappeared the next day with another jet in the same hangar.
For both events, a fire truck had to step in and spray down the jets to remove the bees, delaying the flights for about an hour.
The airline spokesman told the Time of India that the bees first appeared around 4 pm on November 29, where they were swarming on the side of a Visrata plane bound for Delhi.
From Kolkata Airport, New Delhi, the flight on Sunday was delayed by an hour when the fire truck was brought to remove the bees with a hose. Its original flight time is supposed to be 5.30 pm eventually ended up departing around 6.30 pm.
The next morning, the bees reappeared on another aircraft in the same hangar.
The insects swarmed on a flight for Port Blair airport around 10.30 am, where it had settled above the open cargo doors and stopped the baggage handlers from loading luggage onto the plane.
Once again, a fire hose had to be brought to clear the insects and the loading resumed, the flight taking off around 11.30 am.
Picture: Daily Mail
It is unclear as to why these insects could not leave aircraft alone, but it is known that bees typically swarm when they move their nests.
Some of the reasons for bees to move is because their former nest becomes nonviable due to disease, pests, or other environmental changes; or the other, the bees have simply overgrown their nest which case it will split in two with half the bees heading off to find a new home.
The worker bees would then starve their queen until it becomes light enough to fly, where they will follow her to venture off and find a new place to call home.
Bees would often rest on a location nearby the original nest while sending out scouts to find a new permanent home.
The temporary site can only be used for a few hours, or the bees can stay there for a few days while scouts explore.
Source: Dailymail UK
