Passengers on a Delta Air Lines flight were showered with maggots that fell from an overhead bin on Tuesday after a fellow passenger brought rotting fish in their carry-on luggage, according to several posts on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The flight was traveling from Amsterdam to Detroit when the plane was forced to turn around an hour after departure. Passenger Philip Schotte told WJBK-TV in Detroit that he saw a woman across the aisle “trying to fight off these maggots.” At first he thought it was a “prank”.
“I don’t really know what was going through my mind. I tried to process it – disgust is of course one thing,” said Schotte.
Flight attendants tracked the insects to an overhead compartment, where they found a rotting fish wrapped in newspaper in one of the bags.
“I saw everyone’s reaction to opening the bag, which was just an immediate pinch in the nose,” Schotte told the station.
The airline confirmed the incident aboard Flight DL 133 in a statement to NBC News, saying the bag was not packed properly.
“We apologize to the customers on Flight 133 on February 13 as their trip was interrupted due to an incorrectly packed carry-on bag,” Delta said. “The aircraft returned to the gate and customers were rebooked on the next available flight. The aircraft was taken out of service for cleaning.”
According to flight tracking site FlightAware, the flight departed Amsterdam at 10:11 a.m. local time and returned to the same airport at midday less than two hours later.
Airlive, the aviation news site, reported that the carry-on bag was placed in another bag and burned.