Mayhem erupted just before takeoff on a plane heading from Minneapolis to Madison, Wisconsin, after passengers realized their aircraft wasn’t the only thing trying to take flight.
A flap ensued as two pigeons were found inside the cabin of the Delta Air Lines domestic flight on Saturday, causing brief scenes of chaos as passengers and crew tried to capture the birds flying around the cabin before the jet could take wing.
Tom Caw, an aptly named Instagram user who posted a video of the scene on social media, said that he overheard another passenger tell a flight attendant there was a pigeon on the plane.
“The pilot got on the mic and confirmed a pigeon was on the plane, and said he had no experience with the situation,” Caw wrote. Soon, airport staff boarded and carried said pigeon off to applause from passengers. But the drama was not over.
“The plane eventually pulled away and began taxiing to the runway,” Caw wrote. “And then another pigeon emerged!”
Video shows the scene after the second pigeon was discovered. A passenger can be seen holding up a jacket to block the bird, which was flying towards the back of the plane. The bird drops to the floor as a passenger screams in shock.
Audio obtained by CNN captures the amused tone of the air traffic controller who was talking to the pilot after the second pigeon was discovered.
“There’s a pigeon on the airplane, and it won’t go away,” he repeats back. “That’s a first for me – wow.”
Caw wrote that the pilot relayed the conversation back to passengers and had apparently told the air traffic control that “it was the second time for him – the first being half an hour earlier”.
Airport staff were able to safely remove the second bird from the plane once it taxied back to the gate.
In a statement, Delta apologized for the disruptions and said that it “appreciates the careful actions of our people and our customers to safely remove two birds from the aircraft prior to departure”.
The flight from Minneapolis to Madison is about an hour long, something Caw noted when posting about the stowaway birds.
“They didn’t know this flight to [Madison} is too short for Delta to offer beverage/snack service,” he wrote.
