A Delta Air Lines flight was delayed for almost five hours after a swarm of bees gathered on one of the plane's wingtips. Following several failed attempts to disperse the bees, the swarm left after Delta simply pushed the aircraft back.

Bee swarm grounds Delta flight

In one of the more unusual aviation incidents you'll hear about this year, the swarm decided to make a temporary home on the 'sharklets' of a Delta Airbus A320 at Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH). Unfortunately for travelers, this caused the flight to be delayed by nearly five hours as Delta and airport staff struggled to remove the bees. One passenger, Anjali Enjeti, documented the incident on her Twitter account as it happened.

The bees apparently attached themselves to the aircraft soon after it pulled into the gate. Passengers were not even able to board the plane and had a clear view of the unfolding drama, which would end up taking much longer than expected.

What took so long?

Delta and airport staff struggled to shake the bees for several reasons. Firstly, a pest controller was sought after, but the captain informed passengers that the pest controller wouldn't be allowed the spray the aircraft. A specialist beekeeper was then called for but wouldn't have been able to touch the aircraft, so they didn't end up coming at all.

The captain then said that the airport didn't have a hose to spray the bees off with water, while fire department services were also unavailable. With all these options off the table, the captain announced they would attempt to taxi the aircraft and hoped this would send the bees on their way.

In a statement, Delta said it was able to remove the "friendly" bees by pushing the plane back, which caused the bees to disperse. It isn't clear if the aircraft's engines played a role in this, but it meant the flight could finally proceed after the unexpected delay. The entire incident meant passengers waited almost five hours before departing - the flight took off at 17:02 (scheduled departure was 12:25) and landed in Atlanta at 19:32.

Dealing with bee swarms

Bees can pose a significant safety threat to aircraft and there have been plenty of incidents over the years. In 2015, a Flybe flight from Southampton was forced to turn around after a single bee lodged into the plane's instrumentation, leading to technical issues.

Spraying water tends to do the trick with bee swarms, but this apparently wasn't available in Houston yesterday. In similar situations, such as this 2019 incident involving Air India and a Vistara A320 in 2022, dousing the swarm with a water cannon was all it took to clear them.

Have you ever been involved in a similar incident involving bees? How did authorities get rid of the problem on that occasion? Let us know your stories in the comments.