ADVERTISEMENTDelta Airlines is in hot water after maggots began to “rain” onto plane passengers on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit in the United States.
Passengers onboard the nine-hour flight reported the “absolutely gross” incident saw the flight forced to make a U-turn about one hour into the trip.
Horrified travellers say the maggots came from a rotten fish in somebody’s hand luggage, which was teeming with larvae towards the back of the plane.
Shock shared all over social media
Taking to the forum Reddit, one passenger who goes by the username of Nisha_16 said:
"My family and I were in the row directly in front of the maggots. The lady right behind us told the flight attendants the maggots were falling on her head. I turned around and they were wiggling around on the seat.”
“Absolutely gross," the poster added, also claiming that the owner of the bag did not exit the plane with everybody else at the end of the flight.
On X - formerly Twitter - another passenger, Kelsey said in a now-deleted post, that she had informed staff about the "absolutely odd odour" on board, but that instead of taking the situation in hand, “they were all sitting around in the crew area laughing and talking when we had been on the plane for close to three hours with not even water offered.”
What did Delta say in response to the incident?
Delta - the world’s busiest airline, which has more than 4,000 flights daily to over 300 destinations - confirmed that rotten fish and maggots were discovered in the bag and apologised to those onboard.
"We apologise to the customers of Flight 133 AMS-DTW as their trip was interrupted due to an improperly packed carry-on bag," the airline told Sky News.
"The aircraft returned to the gate and passengers were placed on the next available flight. The aircraft was removed from service for cleaning," they added.
The plane eventually returned to Schipol Airport in Amsterdam, with passengers given alternative flights onwards.
It’s not the first time the airline has been in trouble lately. Last month, a nose wheel fell off one of their Boeing jets and, last year, severe turbulence left some travellers needing medical attention.