Bees swarmed a plane door and delayed a commercial flight by more than an hour.
The buzzing throng congregated on an open cargo hold door.
The IndiGo flight was grounded as airport staff scrambled to deal with the army of insects.
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The swarm appeared while baggage handlers were loading suitcases onto the Airbus A320.
The airport’s fire team was called in after efforts to disperse the bees using smoke proved ineffective.
It had been due to take off at 4:20pm on Monday (7 Jul), as reported by Need To Know.
A Surat Airport official told local media: “They used a jet of water from a fire tender to remove the bees from the open shutter.”
The flight was finally able to depart for Jaipur, India, at 5:26pm, with no injuries or damage reported.
An airline spokesperson told local media: “IndiGo Flight 6E-784 Surat-Jaipur was delayed due to a bee incident, which is something not under our control, so the flight departed post clearance.
“Standard protocols were followed.”
It is not the first time bees have caused flyers to be delayed.
Passengers were left stranded for more than an hour at Natal Airport, Brazil, after a swarm congregated on the wing of their plane in January last year.
The insects appeared shortly after the aircraft had touched down from Fernando de Noronha.
The flight landed at 12:35pm, but disembarking only began at 1:50pm, after firefighters had dispersed the bees with jets of liquid.
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