(WFRV) – A flight from Minnesota to Wisconsin on Saturday night was delayed due to chaos caused by some unticketed and unruly passengers—a pair of pigeons.
Footage of the incident was filmed by Tom Caw, a passenger on Delta Airlines Flight 2348 from Minneapolis to Madison’s Dane County Regional Airport-Truax Field (MSN). Caw posted it on his Instagram account (@cawtom).
Caw’s post said that a passenger reported a pigeon on the plane to a flight attendant, and that the pilot confirmed it. The pigeon was carried off the plane, but that was hardly the end of the story.
The plane, Caw said in his post, taxiied to the runway, and another pigeon appeared, causing chaos as it flew through the cabin.
Caw’s video shows one person using a jacket to try and catch the second pigeon, and the plane subsequently returned to the gate. The pigeon was safely removed by a baggage handler.
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“My guess is the pigeons were tired of flying and wanted snacks,” Caw joked on Instagram. “They didn’t know this flight to MSN is too short for Delta to offer beverage/snack service.”
The flight was scheduled to depart the gate at 10:15 p.m. and arrive at MSN at roughly 11:21 p.m.; however, it took off at around 11:38 p.m. and arrived at the gate in Madison around 12:17 a.m.
“Delta appreciates the careful actions of our people and our customers to safely remove two birds from the aircraft prior to departure and we apologize to our customers for the delay in their travel,” Delta said in a statement shared with Nexstar.
Delta didn’t offer any insight on how the pigeons were able to get aboard the plane without a ticket.
