Chaos as two pigeons board Delta flight as passengers scramble to catch them

Daily Mail​

27-05-2025

A pair of pigeons appeared to want to go for a joyride after they flew onboard a Delta flight, leaving passengers scrambling to capture them.
The chaotic moment took place Saturday night while passengers on flight 2348 boarded the aircraft in Minneapolis, Minnesota bound for Wisconsin.
The clip, captured by passenger Tom Caw, showed the bizarre incident unfold right before his eyes.
The dark plane, lit up with blue lights, appeared to be completely full as a man stood in the aisle just before one of the rogue birds charged down the middle of the plane.
The man then lifted a jacket in the air, making the pigeon stop in its tracks before it appeared to fall to the ground while other passengers screamed and ducked away.
When passengers initially boarded the plane at Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport, Caw said he overheard someone tell a flight attendant 'there was a pigeon on the plane.'
Soon enough, the pilot hopped on the microphone and informed everyone that that was indeed the case and that 'he had no experience with this situation.'
The pigeon was then escorted off the plane by baggage claim handlers, Caw said. It is unclear how the birds go on board.
'People applauded. A young girl asked if she could pet it,' he added.
Thinking that was the end of the mayhem, the plane prepared for take off on the runway when another pigeon snuck onboard, Caw detailed.
'This is my video of it flying through the cabin. It was caught, and we returned to the gate,' he said.
'Pilot said when he radioed the control tower about us coming back due to a pigeon, the guy said that was a first for him. Pilot told him it was the second time for him—the first being half an hour earlier.'
The second pigeon was taken off the plane by another baggage handler and was 'still alive,' Caw said.
'My guess is the pigeons were tired of flying and wanted snacks. They didn't know this flight to MSN is too short for Delta to offer beverage/snack service,' he added.
A spokesperson with Delta Airlines told DailyMail.com the flight, with 119 customers and five crew members on board, arrived 56 minutes late due to the incident.
'Delta appreciates the careful actions of our people and our customers to safely remove two birds from the aircraft prior to departure and we apologize to our customers for the delay in their travel,' they added.
News of the animals on the plane comes a little more than a month after a United Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing after a rabbit got sucked into its engine.
Dramatic video showed a fireball of flames erupting from an engine on Flight 2325 shortly after it took off from Denver Airport on April 13.
Passengers on the Edmonton, Canada-bound flight recalled hearing a 'loud bang' and feeling 'significant vibration' just after takeoff, but the aircraft continued to climb.
'Every few moments there was a backfire coming from the engine, a giant fireball behind it,' passenger Scott Wolff told ABC's Good Morning America. 'Everyone in the plane then started to panic.'