Airline passenger bit by scorpion on Air Transat flight: 'I had a full-fledged panic attack'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The airline is currently unaware of how the scorpion got onto the aircraft. (Air Transat)
Let’s just hope this is the end of the current scorpion-on-a-plane trend.
An unlucky passenger on an Air Transat flight from Toronto to Calgary was stung by a scorpion that had somehow made its way onto the aircraft last month.
Quin Maltais said the flight was on its final approach into Calgary when she felt an odd sensation on her back, though she dismissed it as the overhead air conditioning blowing down her shirt, she told the CBC.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}But when the sensation turned to “piercing pain,” Maltais turned around to find a scorpion sitting in the fold of her seat.
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"There was a scorpion in my sweater. It was on my back for the past 30 minutes,” she told the CBC. “It was like four inches, maybe.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Maltais said she informed a flight attendant, who initially tried to dismiss the sensation as a gum wrapper (which was also on the seat) before the attendant spotted the scorpion.
“We can confirm that one of our passengers was stung by a scorpion during the final approach of flight TS823, flying from Toronto to Calgary on February 26, 2019,” the Canadian airline said. (iStock)
“We can confirm that one of our passengers was stung by a scorpion during the final approach of flight TS823, flying from Toronto to Calgary on February 26, 2019,” Air Transat confirmed in a statement obtained by Fox News, though the airline is not currently aware of how the scorpion got on the flight in the first place.
“Once at [the] destination, the passenger informed our cabin crew of the situation. Our team immediately contacted Medlink, a service offered by the MedAire company to Air Transat, and our passenger was then assisted at the gate by paramedics.”
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Maltais, however, told the CBC she suffered a “full-fledged panic attack” as she was being escorted off the plane. “Paramedics had to kind of keep me strapped to a heart monitor for a while cause I was just unable to calm down," she told the outlet, adding that she plans to inspect her airline seats much more closely from now on.
The airline also confirmed to Fox News that it had collected the scorpion after everyone disembarked and handed over to “airport authorities.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“Although this is an extremely rare situation, it can unfortunately occur,” the airline stated. (Air Transat)
“Although this is an extremely rare situation, it can unfortunately occur,” the airline stated. “Our teams followed the protocols in place and a complete inspection of the aircraft, as well as an extermination process, were carried.”
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News of Maltais’ scorpion situation follows a similar incident from a Lion Air flight earlier the same month, during which a customer filmed a large scorpion crawling out of an overhead bin.