A Delta Airlines flight travelling between Amsterdam and Detroit had to be quickly turned around when maggots fell out of an overhead bag onto a passenger on Tuesday.
Flight crew onboard found a nearby overhead bin containing an “improperly packed carry-on bag” that had rotten fish wrapped in newspaper tucked inside.
The Delta Flight DL133 had to be re-routed to deal with the situation and carry out an inspection.
According to a statement from Dela: “The aircraft returned to the gate and passengers were placed on the next available flight.”
Philip Schotte told Fox2Detroit that the woman who was the unfortunate victim was freaking out, “trying to kind of fight off these maggots.”
He looked across the aisle and saw a least a dozen wiggly maggots falling on the woman.
“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.”
The flight attendants tracked the insects to a passenger’s bag in one of the overhead compartments.
“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.”
The man who placed the bag there stood up and claimed it. The flight crew then took the cargo to the back of the plane, Schotte said, and the pilot notified flyers they were returning to Amsterdam Airport Schiphol.
The aircraft was less than an hour into the nine-hour flight when it had to be turned around.
