Snakes and scorpions on a plane?
While delays are endured and perhaps expected these days in air travel, are there also risks from snakes and scorpions?
An airline passenger who says he was stung by a scorpion on a flight out of San Jose, Costa Rica, conjured up a USA Today search for other incidents.
And there were some.
In the US, there were two reports of scorpions on planes during a single week last January. A man flying from San Francisco to Burlington, VT., was stung twice by a scorpion on a connecting flight between Chicago O’Hare and Vermont, reported the AP.
That same week, the Toronto Sun says a man on an American Airlines flight from Miami to Toronto was also bitten by a scorpion.
In 2005, a man was stung by a scorpion while checking in for a flight in New Zealand, a country not known to be home to any venomous insects or snakes.
“The victim had felt severe nausea after being stung by the creature, which was caught and killed by fellow passengers,” AP said of the San Jose incident. The man received medical attention and was released.
“Someone must have smuggled the scorpion onto the airplane and let it out there,” an Iberia representative said. “The motive is not clear.”
Report by David Wilkening
John Alwyn-Jones
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