Swarm of thousands of bees delays Pittsburgh flight

Stephen Repasky / AP

Thousands of bees swarm on the wing of a Delta Air Lines flight at Pittsburgh International Airport in Pittsburgh. The flight from Pittsburgh to New York was delayed until Repasky, a beekeeper, was called in to remove them.

Justin Merriman / AP

A beekeeper, gathers up bees that swarmed on the wing of a Delta Air Lines flight.

Master beekeeper Stephen Repasky tells KDKA-TV he was called out on Wednesday when the bees gathered on the wing of the plane as crews were getting ready to fuel the plane.

Repasky says such swarms form when colonies become too large and the queen leaves half of her bees behind to find a new home. Some swarms can contain 25,000 to 30,000 bees.

-- Reported by the Associated Press

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Interesting. I saw the very same thing several weeks ago on a smaller scale. As an aircraft mechanic I was contacted to investigate a swarm of bees in a Piper Cheyenne (small turboprop) . Ultimately a bee removal expert removed about 3000 bees from around an air inlet duct on the plane, but even 24 hrs later there were a few bees still hanging around the area.

  • 1 vote
Reply#1 - Sun Aug 5, 2012 4:20 AM EDT
kirsteDeleted

I think that this would have been better if it went down like the Beemanity.

    Reply#3 - Mon Aug 6, 2012 2:47 PM EDT
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