An American Airlines flight scheduled for Frankfurt, Germany suffered a delay at Dallas Fort Worth due to a swarm of unwanted stowaways.
While on the tarmac about 1,000 bees gathered underneath a wing of a Boeing 767 and were reluctant to disperse.
After two attempts a beekeeper described as wearing a ‘space suit’ managed to dissipate the swarm.
"We had an issue at DFW with a swarm of bees not once, but twice. The bees never entered the passenger cabin of the plane and were concentrated in the cargo area underneath the plane," American spokeswoman Andrea Huguely said.
"It was not your usual everyday situation, but certainly something that our DFW team was able to handle," she added.
The flight eventually took off after a delay of more than an hour.
It is not the first time bees have created such a buzz at airports.
A similar incident occurred inside the cargo hold of a plane at Miami in 2012.
Even a solitary bee has been known to cause air travel disruption.
A UK flight – appropriately operated by carrier Flybe – had to turn round due to a ‘technical issue’ after a bee got stuck inside a plane’s external instrument which relays air speed readings to the flight deck.
