Delta Air Lines Flight 133, which took off from Amsterdam, Netherlands, for Detroit, Michigan, had to turn back one hour into the flight after maggots apparently landed on a passenger from overhead storage.
The station contacted traveler Philip Schotte, a Dutch native now living in Iowa, who reported seeing approximately a dozen maggots on the woman beside him.
“She was freaking out. She was just trying to kind of fight off these maggots. … I don’t really know what was going through my mind. I was trying to process it – disgust is one thing of course. We had to wait there for help to actually come,” Schotte told the station.
According to Schotte, the flight crew eventually found the maggots in a passenger's bag containing rotten fish wrapped in newspaper. He informed the station that the suitcase had been transferred to the back of the plane, and it was announced that the flight was returning to Amsterdam.
Schotte told FOX 2 that he boarded another flight to the United States a few hours later.FlightAware said Flight 133 flew for only one hour and 49 minutes.
Delta Air Lines confirmed to CNN that the flight had to turn around but did not answer specific queries concerning the maggots.
"We apologise to the customers of Flight 133 AMS-DTW as their trip was interrupted due to an improperly packed carry-on bag," Delta Airlines stated in a statement to CNN Travel. "The aircraft returned to the gate, and passengers were transferred to the next available flight." "The aircraft was taken out of service for cleaning."
Delta does not prohibit bringing aboard perishable food items, including fish, as long as there is "no violation of agricultural restrictions for the destination country," according to their
