Ticks on a plane! (Bugs delay United flight)

[uppityperson]

Ewwwwww

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008041263_webticks10.html

Some wayward ticks delayed a United Airlines flight from Denver to Des Moines. Flight 1178 was delayed for nearly six hours on Tuesday after a passenger informed a flight attendant that she found a tick in economy class during a flight from Washington, D.C., to Denver.

The airline decided it couldn't fly the plane until it was cleaned of ticks, so passengers had to wait while another plane was flown from Colorado Springs to Denver. The flight was further delayed because of thunderstorms in the Denver area.

United spokeswoman Robin Urbanski said as many as three ticks were discovered. Urbanski said the airline hasn't figured out how the ticks got on the plane or what type of ticks were found. "I don't know if we'll be able to find that out," Urbanski said. "When possible, we do try to look into those type of things, and hopefully try to look for its origin."

The replacement plane shuttled the 107 passengers to Des Moines. The plane with ticks had begun its day in Chicago. It was cleaned of ticks, checked and put back into service. No ticks were found on passengers.

[mainer]

1. Ticks are all over the place this summer

If you live near farmland or grasslands, anywhere deer hang out (and that's pretty much the whole northeast), there's a good chance you'll pick one up on your clothing. Or from your dog. The real mystery is why anyone thought that ticks on planes was anything unusual.

[Enrique]

2. "Bugs Delay"

[Selatius]

3. Likely, the passengers or the airline workers themselves unknowingly brought them on board.

If our skin were made of rock, ticks wouldn't be a problem, but we are mere mortal humans.

[Muttocracy]

4. shouldn't they notify the folks who were on the previous flight?

I try to love all living things, but I'd be happy if ticks went extinct.

[enlightenment]

5. Story my father told me . . .

Way back in the long ago (1955), my family was stationed in Paraguay - dad was teaching Paraguayan Air Force pilots to fly. That year, everyone at the military mission had been invited out to General Strossener's ranch for his annual birthday bash weekend, which included a boar hunt. Several boars were bagged and their carcasses placed in large metal cans for the plane trip back to Asunción (they were flying DC-3s, I think). Upon arrival, the cans were removed from the plane and everyone went home.

A couple of weeks later, the wife of the American Ambassador notified the mission that she wanted to go to Lima to do some Christmas shopping. She arrived at the flightline and boarded the plane . . . off they went toward Peru. All was fine until they started their ascent over the Andes, which required crew and passengers to wear oxygen masks part of the way because the planes were not pressurised. The crew (my dad was not piloting this one) kept hearing odd muffled noises from the back and eventually the co-pilot went back to see what was going on.

Turns out the ambassador's wife was being eaten alive by fleas - but she thought she'd die on the spot if she took off her oxygen mask, so she was dancing around in her seat and scratching herself raw - and hollering into her mask.

Apparently, the fleas had escaped from the tin cans and survived for weeks inside the plane - just waiting for a tasty meal.

Bugs on planes.

[Toupence]

6. Ticks on a Plane Video

Check out the funny You Tube Video "Ticks on a Plane"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5Wyc4eiLoc