A passenger on a Delta Air Lines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit is probably very bugged by her experience.
That’s because at least a dozen maggots fell from an overhead bin and onto the woman, which led to the flight returning to the Netherlands.
The unidentified woman’s seat mate, Philip Schotte, told Fox-affiliate WJBK-TV in Detroit how the woman reacted to having creepy larvae descend upon her.
“She was freaking out,” Schotte said. “She was just trying to kind of fight off these maggots.”
Schotte said at first he thought the falling maggots were some kind of prank but had no clue what was really happening.
“I don’t really know what was going through my mind. I was trying to process it ― disgust is one thing of course,” Schotte said. “We had to wait there for help to actually come.”
Schotte was eventually moved to another seat while flight attendants searched the overhead bins for the source of the maggots.
“They found out that there was a rotten fish in there,” Schotte said. “I did see everyone’s reaction to the bag being opened, which was just an immediate pinching of the nose.”
A man then claimed ownership of the rotting fish, which was wrapped in a newspaper. Flight attendants grabbed the maggot-infested fish and took it to the back of the plane.
The plane was flying over England when the pilot informed passengers they were returning to Amsterdam.
When the plane landed, passengers exited and were scheduled onto other, hopefully less smelly, flights, according to AirLive.net. In addition, the suitcase that held the decomposing fish was put into a bag to be burned.
Schotte told WJBK he does not know if the man who brought the fish and the maggots on the plane was detained or fined. He was just happy to get on another flight a few hours later.
Still, he has questions.
“I am surprised that both a rotten fish and live maggots were not picked up on by security,” he said.
In a statement to various media outlets, Delta said the flight “was interrupted due to an improperly packed carry-on bag. The aircraft returned to the gate and passengers were placed on the next available flight. The aircraft was removed from service for cleaning.”