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08th Jun 2015

Dublin Flight Forced to Return Due to “Trapped Bee”

The incident happened on Friday.

Rebecca McKnight

One single insect cancelling a flight? You must bee kidding…

A flight from Southampton to Dublin was aborted due to safety concerns, after a bee became lodged in one of the plane’s instruments.

The aircraft, which was operated by British low-cost regional airline Flybe, was forced to turn back after the incident occurred – shortly after the plane took off from the Hampshire city on Friday.

A picture taken on August 3, 2012 in Prunieres, southern France shows a bumblebee flying near lavender.   AFP PHOTO/JOEL SAGET        (Photo credit should read JOEL SAGET/AFP/GettyImages)

The flight was headed for Dublin, but when the pilots spotted a technical issue the plane was turned around and landed back in Southampton.

The cause of the issue was not discovered until travellers had disembarked and engineers were able to examine the plane. It was then they found the unwelcome passenger.

A spokeswoman for Flybe said that the airline was sorry for delaying their customers but added that the airline had to ensure all of their planes were safe.