Ants Held Up A Jet For Several Hours At A Canadian Airport
If you heard about a plane flight being cancelled due to an insect infestation on board, which type of insect do you think would be the culprit in this situation? Most of you are probably thinking “bedbugs”, but this happens to be a rare case involving another type of unexpected insect group. For passengers onboard a WOW flight from Iceland to Montreal, the trip was not enjoyable. At some point during the mid-air flight a seemingly large army of ants was discovered on board.
During a five hour trip from Reykjavik to Montreal, a passenger named Marco Lavecchia heard some commotion directly above his seat. It sounded like the commotion was coming from the overhead baggage compartment. The noise was loud enough to wake him from a nap, so he was not in a hurry to explore the situation on his own as the mysterious noise “creeped” the man out. Soon afterward, Lavecchia noticed numerous ants crawling all over the overhead compartments. Despite the apparent ant infestation, the plane landed as scheduled in Montreal, but it would be another few hours before the passengers could call it a night.
Once the plane landed, the pilot ordered the passengers and crew to remain seated until airport authorities decided how to evacuate the passengers. Finally, after a full two hours, the passengers were let off of the plane. Naturally, the passengers were happy to leave the plane, but they were also forced to leave all of their carry-on baggage aboard the plane. This included purses and coats. Some passengers left the airport wearing only pants and a T-shirt. Given the cold temperatures in Montreal, this did not make a lot of people happy. Some passengers without coats were given blankets and bottles of water by the airport staff. Luckily, the passengers were taken to the baggage area so that they could pick up their checked baggage. Health Canada has been in touch with several entomologists in an effort to identify the ant species that infested the plane. While the species of ant has not yet been disclosed to the public, Health Canada insisted that the ants were unable to spread disease.
Do you think that the passengers were forced to leave their carry on bags aboard the plane due to the possibility of spreading the ants to new areas via carry on baggage?
