Rogue Tarantula Brings Down Delta Flight

Rich Thomaselli
by Rich Thomaselli
Last updated: 1:00 PM ET, Fri September 25, 2015

Yes, Samuel L. Jackson would have dug this.

In what has to be a first for the airline industry, Delta Air Lines on Wednesday night issued a tarantula cancellation of a flight.

Not kidding.

And probably not funny, at least to passengers who were scheduled to fly from Baltimore to Atlanta.

But that's what happened when a baggage handler spotted the hairy spider in the cargo hold of Delta Flight 1525. Apparently, the flight was carrying some, uh, extra passengers.

"There was a cargo shipment of insects that was breached," Delta spokesman Morgan Durrant told CNN.

The final decision on cancelling the flight and switching over to a new plane was actually made by the crew, who apparently didn't hesitate. According to WBAL TV in Baltimore, the pilot told the passengers inside the terminal, "We have to make the safe decision on that - being bitten by a tarantula is not a good thing."

Ya' think?

It gets worse - as of Thursday morning, the tarantula had not yet been located. Happy flying!


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Rich Thomaselli

Rich Thomaselli

Associate Writer

Editor Associate Writer true 9281 14744 Rich Thomaselli has written for TravelPulse since 2014 and has been a professional journalist for nearly 40 years. His work has appeared in USA Today, the New York Times and New York Yankees publications. He is an 11-time writ

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