(NewsNation) — A woman on a Delta Air Lines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit got an unpleasant surprise when maggots from another passenger’s luggage in an overhead bin fell on her.
This caused the plane to turn around an hour after it departed, WJBK reports.
Passenger Philip Schotte, a Netherlands native who lives in Iowa, told the station he was on the flight when he looked across the aisle only to see “at least a dozen wiggly maggots,” as WJBK writes, falling on the woman. The woman was “freaking out” and trying to fight the insects off of her, he recalled.
“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.”
Flight attendants were the ones who were able to trace the bugs back to a passenger’s bag. Apparently, Schotte said, there had been rotten fish in it, which was wrapped in a newspaper.
In a statement to WJBK, Delta apologized to customers and said the aircraft was interrupted due to an “improperly packed carry-on bag.”
The aircraft was returned to the gate and removed from service to be cleaned, Delta said. Passengers were put on the next available flight.