Foul stench of 100 pigs in cargo causes KLM flight to make emergency landing in Bermuda
Forget snakes on a plane.
A KLM Royal Dutch Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Mexico City made an emergency landing in Bermuda on Friday after the foul stench of 100 pigs in cargo overwhelmed passengers and crew members onboard.
KLM Flight 685 touched down in the island nation for “a fresh-air break” after the “distinctive aroma” of the hogs wafted up from the cargo into the cabin and cockpit area of the Boeing 787, a spokesperson for Bermuda’s LF Wade International Airport said.
Flight data shows the plane was about six hours into its journey when it made the unexpected diversion above the Atlantic.
The 259 passengers and crew members and the 100 pigs were offloaded in Bermuda, where the human travelers were given hotel rooms while the stinky, four-legged travelers were placed under the watch of a government veterinarian — and possibly hosed down, Sykport which runs the airport, said.
“Our team at Skyport is accustomed to managing all sorts of unusual situations, and today was no exception,” a Skyport spokesperson said in a statement. “Thanks to excellent collaboration between KLM, Delta Air Lines, and local partners, both our two-legged and four-legged visitors are safe and well cared for—even if this wasn’t quite the Christmas vacation they had planned.”
The Mexico-bound travelers — those with and without a tail — were placed on a new flight that left Bermuda the following day just before 6:30 p.m. and landed in Mexico City around 9:20 p.m. local time.
In total, the smelly pigs caused a more than 24-hour delay.
KLM didn’t immediately respond to a request for information.
