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Swarm of angry bees attach themselves to plane windshield delaying flight for two hours

The insects were eventually blasted off with a water cannon

Cathy Adams
Monday 16 September 2019 11:09 BST
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A swarm of bees delayed an Air India flight
A swarm of bees delayed an Air India flight (Getty)

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A swarm of bees that attacked a plane’s cockpit windshield delayed a flight by almost two hours.

The Air India flight was about to take off from Kolkata, West Bengal, for Agartala, a city in north east India, when the bees were discovered.

The insects had lodged themselves on the left-hand side of the cockpit glass, reported The Times of India.

The plane, which had 136 passengers onboard, was then unable to take off as the bees were blocking the pilots’ view.

Airport ground staff tried to dislodge the bees unsuccessfully, including using the aircraft’s windscreen wipers.

The angry bees were eventually chased off by a water cannon deployed by the fire brigade.

The operation to clear flight AI 743’s windshield of bees took an hour, according to Kolkata’s airport director.

Kaushik Bhattacharjee said the authorities inspected the area around the airport for any “bee-nesting” zones, but didn’t find any.

The plane eventually took off for Agartala three hours late.

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