A swarm obstructed the cargo door of a domestic flight, pushing back takeoff by an hour

A swarm of bees encircled the luggage door of a flight in India, resulting in a delay of over an hour, media reports said on Tuesday.

Passengers who had boarded the Indigo flight at Surat International Airport in the western state of Gujarat were left waiting, while airport staff scrambled to resolve the issue as the bees confined themselves to one section by the door, reports said. 

Airport authorities first tried to drive the bees away using smoke, but this proved ineffective. They then brought in the fire brigade team, who used water to spray the area.

"We informed the airport's fire team. They used a jet of water from a fire tender to remove the bees from the open shutter," the Times of India quoted an airport official as saying. After the issue was addressed, the flight to Jaipur managed to take off after an hour's delay, local media reports said. 

Similar incidents were reported in 2019 and 2020 when swarms of bees delayed two separate Air India flights in Kolkata, according to a report by The Indian Express. While in 2019, the bees sat near the cockpit window of a Boeing 737, the following year, the insects gathered near the cargo hold of an aircraft, the report added.

India's fast-growing aviation sector has faced a number of problems over the last few months. In June, a UK-bound Boeing 787 carrying 242 passengers and crew crashed into a medical college hostel just minutes after takeoff from Ahmedabad. 

On Tuesday, the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau submitted its preliminary report on the crash to the Aviation Ministry, according to a report by news agency ANI. The findings and conclusions of the investigators remain undisclosed.