A United Plane Was Taken Out of Service After Ants Starting Spilling Out of an Overhead Bin

From House Beautiful

Passengers on a flight from Venice, Italy to Newark, New Jersey were surprised with some unexpected flight-mates this weekend on a United Airlines plane-and no, Samuel L. Jackson fans, they weren't snakes.

Plane passenger Charlotte Burns shared the whole creepy-crawly affair in a Twitter thread. "On the plane from Venice to New York when a large, fat ant walks over my pillow..." was the way she began her story, which soon went viral-prompting United to issue a statement about how they investigated the issue (and ensured the plane was ant-free going forward).

Apparently, Charlotte began noticing the ants before the 9-hour flight even took off into the air. In her thread, she explains that she voiced her concerns to the staff, but they asked her to wait until the plane was airborne before they'd listen to her complaints.

Eventually, other passengers began to notice ants crawling all over the plane's interior-they were seen scooting across armrests, headrests, and even pillows. "The guy seated across from me in the middle aisle has been on ant watch, it turns out," Charlotte continues in her thread. "He says he has seen a parade-a parade!-of six of them in the overhead locker in the seat in front of me."

After a whole ordeal of plane staffers allegedly trying to deescalate ant-mageddon with a wet cloth, passengers convinced the flight attendants to check the overhead compartment-and this is where I get some serious Snakes On a Plane vibes.

"The guy in front pulls down his case (which btw isn't zipped shut, as middle-aisle guy notes to me in an aside)," the thread continues. "And ants ants ants spill out, running in every which direction."

The crew member in question then opened the unzipped suitcase, leading to even more and more ants scrambling out and onto the airplane. The people at the scene tried to contain the insects with no such luck.

At this point, Charlotte has had it with these ants on this plane-especially after she claims to have been bitten by one in another tweet following her thread.

In a statement, United Airlines told People, “We are concerned by the experience a customer reported on United flight 169 from Venice to Newark. We had been in contact with the crew during the flight, where they advised the ants were isolated from a customer’s bag in the overhead bin, and was contained to a limited area of the cabin.

“The airplane landed at Newark this afternoon and has be taken out of service for extermination," United continued. "We followed proper protocol by notifying customs, immigration, as well as agriculture of the issue.”

Where was Samuel L. Jackson when you need him?

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