Honeybees descended on two Vistara aircraft on Sunday afternoon and Monday morning at the Calcutta airport, causing delays. Water cannons had to be used to drive away the swarms, officials said.
On both occasions, the bees were detected before passengers had boarded the flights, said Vistara officials. Both flights — around 150 passengers had booked seats on each — were operated with Airbus A320Neo aircraft.
On Sunday, Vistara staff detected the bees moments before passengers were to board the flight that was to leave for Delhi at 5pm.
“We detected the large swarm of bees on the front right side of the aircraft just before boarding was to start. The aircraft had been parked in a remote bay since the previous night.
