When it comes to birds and aircraft, the most common interaction that makes the news has to do with bird strikes- although sometimes birds nesting in stored jets is also a problem. However, a United Airlines flight on Friday, July 2nd, experienced a completely different interaction. In this case, a number of birds had infiltrated the cabin, delaying the flight's departure. However, the aircraft's crew had a simple plan to deplane these stowaways safely.

Birds on a plane

On July 2nd, United Airlines flight UA43 was planning to fly from Kahului (OGG), Hawaii, to Newark (EWR) in New Jersey. While the flight's scheduled departure time was 16:55 local, the aircraft's takeoff would be delayed slightly by a few additional 'passengers.'

The flight was preparing for departure when at least two birds found themselves inside the cabin of the Boeing 767-300ER. Live and Let's Fly reports that the birds had 'wedged themselves inside a ceiling panel.' Erie News Now notes that maintenance crews first attempted to catch the birds by opening these ceiling panels.

Apparently, without success using this method, crews then tried a different approach. In the embedded Twitter video below, you can hear a crew member saying the following:

"We're gonna try something here. They tell us if we shut all the lights off, close all the window shades- put the window shades down, and leave the front door open, it'll be the only source of light- maybe the small birds will see the light and they'll fly out."

Passengers are then instructed to close their window shades and be seated.

Going towards the light

With passengers seated and all window shades down, the cabin crew dimmed the lights, hoping that the birds would fly towards the only source of light.

The video below shows the moment the birds exited the aircraft- assisted by a crew member holding his hands in the air to persuade the creatures to continue to the front of the plane. Another crew member, located at the front, is seen shining his flashlight at the birds, which causes them to turn around and fly in the wrong direction momentarily. We're not sure why this was done, but the mission was accomplished in the end.

With the birds safely out of the aircraft, applause from passengers can be heard throughout the cabin.

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A minor delay for flight UA43

Twitter user and The Points Guy writer Zach Honig was onboard and captured the video of the entire incident. Along with the video he posted to Twitter, Honig includes an app-based service update from United Airlines. The service update states:

"We want you to know that your flight is departing late because we need additional time to assist customers on this flight."

An estimated delay time of 20 minutes is then provided in this announcement.

We can say with a reasonable amount of certainty that this announcement delay and its reasoning were chosen due to the lack of anything more appropriate. It's perhaps more accurate (and better sounding) than citing technical difficulties or mechanical issues!

We reached out to United Airlines and requested a comment on this incident. At the time of publication, no response was received.

According to RadarBox.com, the flight departed at 17:32- 37 minutes later than its scheduled time of 16:55. On the arrivals side, its scheduled landing time of 08:25 was delayed by 22 minutes as the plane touched down at 08:47.

Have you ever seen an incident like this before? Share your experience by leaving a comment.