THE STING

Bees On a Plane

Swarms let loose on a Russian flight.

Note to Russian authorities: don’t let bees on a plane. Two large cardboard boxes of bees were stowed in the cabinets–they got to travel business class–of a Boeing 757 going from the eastern city of Blagoveshchensk to Moscow. Then the buzzing started. Passengers panicked, and flight attendants–who must’ve been reviewing their job descriptions–scrambled to tape the cabinets shut. After a 10-hour flight the ordeal was finally over, and it was reported that a senior airport official had arranged for a “slightly drunk” trafficker to smuggle the bees across the country, and that authorities could pretty much “carry on board anything” in Russia. The plane had to be fumigated. Of course, a new crew later discovered that five bees were still on the plane.