United Airlines was forced to “deep clean” a 767-300 after it was overrun with oversized ants on a flight from Venice.
Charlotte Burns, an New York-based editor, live tweeted the entire incident in hilarious fashion:
On the plane from Venice to New York when a large, fat ant walks over my pillow. Hmmm. That's odd.
— charlotte burns (@charlieburns) June 17, 2019
She saw a couple before takeoff but then became engrossed in her book and forgot about them.
Meanwhile, I am reading a good book so forget about the ants for a minute. Until—another one on the pillow. Ok, this is becoming rapidly less relaxing.
— charlotte burns (@charlieburns) June 17, 2019
A flight attendant sees her first ant as she is pouring beverages:
The nice lady is talking to me and pouring a drink when she shudders: she's seen an ant, marching across the top of the seat in front. She calls her senior colleague. This is becoming *disruptive* (and in the old-fashioned way before tech people coopted the term)
— charlotte burns (@charlieburns) June 17, 2019
Meanwhile, the guy across the aisle is just silently counting them:
The guy seated across from me in the middle aisle has been on ant watch, it turns out. He says he has seen a parade — a parade!— of six of the in the overhead locker in the seat in front of me
— charlotte burns (@charlieburns) June 17, 2019
The cabin crew comes to the rescue…with a flashlight and wet cloth!
Me and the middle aisle guy are standing up like we are the ant enforcers while the senior cabin crew guy rocks up, armed with… a flashlight and a wet cloth. Sure, ant-mageddon might be undone with a lemony rag, why not.
— charlotte burns (@charlieburns) June 17, 2019
The (eventually identified) “owner” of the ants wakes up:
Guy wakes up—and he's wearing a SPIDERMAN eyemask, by the way, because @UnitedAirlines has obviously got some merch deal—and says very calmly for a guy who just got woken up about an ant infestation "ah yes, I saw one earlier"
— charlotte burns (@charlieburns) June 17, 2019
He reaches into the overhead locker and pulls down his carry-on bag, which is unzipped and swarming with ants!
The guy in front pulls down his case (which btw isn't zipped shut, as middle aisle guy notes to me in an aside) and ants ants ants spill out, running in every which direction. This is absolutely heeby-jeeby-goose-bumpy-get-me-a-gin-gross
— charlotte burns (@charlieburns) June 17, 2019
…and proceeds to drop the bag on the seat.
This is where things start to get more inept. They open the suitcase ON THE SEAT! why? Ants running everywhere and guy in front is using his hands as little tweezers, picking them off one by one. Cabin guy is using sterile lemon wipes.
— charlotte burns (@charlieburns) June 17, 2019
More humor:
BTW: middle aisle guy was watching the new Spiderman when this all happened and people around me are all wearing Spiderman eye masks, which is to say: if this were a movie, that would be heavy foreshadowing that I have in fact been bitten by an ant and am now ant woman
— charlotte burns (@charlieburns) June 17, 2019
But this quip made me laugh the most:
Guy in front asks me "do you not get ants in New York? In Italy we get them for one month, big ones, these ones, then they go away". He has spent the past hour wandering the plane up and down, up and down, avoiding his seat and quarantined bag
— charlotte burns (@charlieburns) June 17, 2019
Apparently the guy just ditched his bag in his Polaris business class seat and spent the rest of the flight wandering up and down the aisles!
By the end of the flight, Burns is resigned to her new fate:
This is my new normal. I live here now. Me and the ants.
— charlotte burns (@charlieburns) June 17, 2019
Middle aisle guys shrugs, says "at least they're not bedbugs". I feel visceral terror and say "Yes. I have had bed bugs." He says "me too". This explains our vigilance. He says "But these are really big ants". I say "I know." I think I got a bite.
— charlotte burns (@charlieburns) June 17, 2019
And indeed, she provided photo evidence of her bite:
And I definitely got bit *shudders* pic.twitter.com/WjL5uNfygo
— charlotte burns (@charlieburns) June 17, 2019
As this situation played out before her followers, United caught wind and sprang into action.
We are concerned by the experience our customer reported on United flight 169 from Venice to Newark. We have been in contact with the crew and they have advised the ants have been isolated from a customer’s bag. At this time, the aircraft will continue to its final destination. We will be taking the aircraft out of service when it arrives in Newark.
The aircraft (N651UA) was taken out of service for a deep clean, but later departed for Geneva last night. Today it returned to Washington Dulles and will continue to Sao Paulo this evening.
CONCLUSION
I find it difficult to blame United for this one…must an airline really be prepared for every kind of pest attack that might come from a carry-on bag? But I guess United and all other airlines are now on notice: watch out for big ants from Italy!
Hopefully United did something really nice for the passengers.
The trouble is, ants are too small to be dragged off (saying that, if the flight was from Hamburg – near Hamelin- they could have got the Pied Piper Of Hamelin to help…).
Soothing words from United: “they have advised the ants have been isolated from a customer’s bag.”
WTF does that even mean?
I wonder how often flights become infected with bed bugs from NYC?
I’ll take Italian ants over NYC bed bugs any day of the week.