Stowaway pigeons sparked chaos on a Delta Airlines plane just before take-off, as they attempted to escape the cabin.
The Delta flight travelling from Minneapolis to Madison, Wisconsin, was delayed by an hour after two pigeons ended up onboard the aircraft.
Video footage shows one of the birds flying through the cabin as a passenger attempts to catch it in his jacket.
Other passengers can be heard screaming and crying, while some filmed the incident on their mobile phones.
“It was bizarre,” passenger Tom Caw told CNN. “When I got on the plane, I initially heard a passenger tell a flight attendant that she thinks there’s a pigeon on the plane and I looked at her and thought, ‘what is she talking about?’”
According to local media reports, baggage handlers were called on board the flight and managed to remove one of the birds.
However, as the plane began to move down the runway, another pigeon emerged, causing the pilot to contact air traffic control to return to the gate.
The wild pigeons were on Saturday’s Delta Airlines flight 2348 along with 119 passengers and five crew members.
In a statement to CNN, Delta said it, “appreciates the careful actions of our people and our customers to safely remove two birds from the aircraft prior to departure.
“We apologise to our customers for the delay in their travel.”
