Maybe you’ve heard, but this has just not been United Airlines’ week. Between the Chicago Aviation Police Department’s “re-accommodation” of a passenger’s face from his in-flight emergency pamphlet to his neighbor’s armrest, multiple unhelpful statements from the company’s CEO, and the subsequent torpedoing of United’s stock, the airline has been taking L after L this week. With David Dao, the re-accommodated passenger, planning to announce his plans to sue United this week, they are really in need of a PR win and fast.
So far, no such luck.
On Tuesday, a passenger on a flight leaving Houston on the way to Calgary was bitten by a scorpion. Yes, a scorpion. Yeah, on a plane. Someone get this script to Samuel L. Jackson, we have a sequel.
Richard Bell apparently discovered the inch-and-a-half long predatory arachnid stowaway as he opened his overhead bin. Global News reports that at first, he wasn’t so worried about it:
“I look down and I thought, ‘aw, it kind of looks like a little lobster.’”
Soon after, though, a fellow passenger pointed out what he was holding was a scorpion, and it wasn’t something he should be holding. For some reason, he dropped and picked it up once more. That’s when it laid into him with what “felt like a wasp sting.”
Someone else on the flight stomped the scorpion out as it fled and then flushed it — something regrettable in retrospect because authorities wanted to see the creature when the flight landed to determine the health risks to Bell. The flight landed in Calgary where medical personnel boarded the plane and treated Bell for the sting.
United Airlines told Global News they’re checking out the situation (because they definitely have nothing else going on).
(Via Global News)