As I reported in a recent At the Airport column for USA TODAY, airports deal with all sorts of unwanted wildlife, from worms to whales.
At King Shaka International Airport in Durban, South Africa, the unwanted wildlife was a swarm of bees.
On Sunday, Mango Airlines reported that a swarm of about 20,000 bees was discovered building a nest inside on of its airplane engines, causing a delay to several flights.
Bee removal experts were called in and successfully gathered up and removed the bees. According to South Africa’s News 24 website, the bees were taken a beekeeper’s home and will be likely be transferred to an area macadamia farm or to another beekeeper.
Two beekeepers were called into remove a swarm of bees that had started building a nest in the engine of one of our aircrafts in Durban on Sunday. This unfortunately meant delays on three of our scheduled flights. The bees were safely removed.#flymango pic.twitter.com/XbzSNLALZV
— Mango Airlines (@FlyMangoSA) September 26, 2018
Incidents of bees swarming airplanes aren’t all that unusual. In March, 2017, an American Airlines flight from Miami to New York’s JFK airport was delayed by about four hours due to a swarm of bees that had landed on the side of an airplane.
Bee careful out there.
