HOUSTON – A United flight was delayed for hours Thursday after reports of a scorpion crawling from a passenger’s clothes – the beleaguered airline’s second scorpion-related incident in less than a month.
According to the site FlightAware, United Flight 1035 from Houston to Quito was delayed for over three hours at George Bush Intercontinental Airport as customers where ushered onto a different plane before finally taking off.
Passenger Daniel Dueñas tweeted, “The captain of my flight just told us it’s a scorpion on the plane???!!!!! Good job United!”
Another passenger tweeted, “flight 1035 from Houston to Ecuador evacuated due to a scorpion stinging a passenger,” but the airlines said in a statement to Tribune that no one had been stung by the arachnid:
“Houston to Quito flight 1035 returned to the gate after a scorpion reportedly emerged from a customer’s clothing. Paramedics at the gate immediately examined the customer and determined that he had not been stung. The customer declined further medical treatment and, as a precaution, a new aircraft was arranged. We provided all passengers with a meal voucher due to the delay and the flight, with the customer aboard, has departed for Quito.”
In a separate incident April 14, a United passenger was stung by a scorpion, also on a plane out of Houston.
The venomous creature fell from an overhead bin and landed in a man’s hair as he was returning home from vacation with his wife.
It’s not clear how the scorpion got on the plane. The airplane had flown to Houston earlier in the day from Costa Rica, according to FlightAware.
Flight attendants quickly corralled the scorpion and flushed it down an airplane toilet. Paramedics met the couple at the gate in Calgary, and they later confirmed to CNN that United reached out to give them unspecified compensation.
CNN contributed to this report.
