Passengers on united airlines Flight 1035 – traveling from Houston to Quito in Ecuador – experienced a delay of just over three hours after reports emerged of a scorpion crawling out from a passenger’s clothing on the plane. This is the second scorpion-related report on a United plane in less than a month.
Passengers ushered off the United Airlines flight in Houston
United Airlines has been in the news quite a bit lately over various scandals and the scorpion story is the latest in a string of reports hitting the headlines. After the scorpion was spotted, passengers have reportedly ushered off the plane at the George Bush International Airport and directed to a different plane, where they finally took off to Quito more than three hours late.
The captain of my flight just told us it's a scorpion on the plane???!!!!! Good job United! 😡🤔
— Daniel Dueñas (@DanielDue19) May 12, 2017
It is not clear how the scorpion managed to board the flight, but the plane had reportedly flown to Houston earlier that day from Costa Rica.
Reports that the United Airlines passenger was stung were untrue
As noted by Fox 13, passengers immediately headed to Twitter to announce the presence of the scorpion on their flight. One tweeted that the flight had been evacuated because someone had been stung by the wily stowaway. However, as reported by the New York Post, United Airlines told the Tribune in a statement that this wasn’t the case and that no passengers had been stung by the scorpion.
@united flight 1035 from Houston to Ecuador evacuated due to a scorpion stinging a passenger. Fun way to start vacation @FoxNews
— Will Hodgkins (@WHodgkins) May 12, 2017
In their statement, the airline said flight 1035 had to return to the gate after the scorpion was spotted as it came out from the passenger’s clothing. Their statement continued by saying that paramedics were waiting at the gate and examined the customer, determining that he had not been stung.
However, as a precaution, the airline arranged a new aircraft for passengers and gave everyone a meal voucher due to the delay.
Second scorpion stowaway on United Airlines in a month
Blasting News reported on a similar story on April 14, where a passenger on a United Airlines flight was stung as a scorpion fell from an overhead storage compartment onto his head.
Flight crew managed to quickly catch the wily stowaway, flushing it down a plane toilet.
While the passenger in that incident was, indeed, stung, paramedics met the couple at the gate in Calgary, where he said he was fine and refused medical treatment. However, United Airlines did reach out to give the couple unspecified compensation over the incident.
Scandals relating to United Airlines
Other incidents relating to United Airlines include the video that went viral after Dr. David Dao was violently dragged off a plane to make room for United personnel on the overbooked flight. More recently a United passenger ended up in San Francisco, instead of her intended destination of Paris, France.
Flying with United to Berlin so hopefully I won't get dragged off the plane, stung by a scorpion, or no giant bunnies die on the flight 🤞 pic.twitter.com/5rC7QE6Y8R
— Gretchen Creekbaum (@Gcreekbaum) May 6, 2017
There was also a passenger with a bladder problem who was told to pee into a cup when she tried to use the bathroom while the fasten seat belt lights were on. Another story related to a valuable giant rabbit which died while in the airline's care on yet another United flight.
