– Scorpion Stings Passenger On United Flight:
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse for United Airlines, this happens.
According to Travel and Leisure, Richard and Linda Bell were on a United Airlines flight home from Houston to Calgary on Sunday, after spending two weeks on vacation in Mexico. And while they were not violently deplaned out of yet another overbooked airplane, a just as traumatic ordeal took place when a scorpion fell from the overhead compartment and on to Richard.
They didn’t immediately recognize the honey-colored, 1.5-inch animal until a passenger sitting next to them pointed out that it was probably a scorpion.
That’s when things got even more confusing: according to T&L instead of promptly discarding the toxic animal, Richard took the scorpion from his hair and dropped it onto his tray. Then, predictably when he picked it up again, the animal stung him. Bell told Global News Canada that it “felt like a wasp sting.” Luckily, someone showed some common sense when another passenger took the scorpion, stomped it on the ground and then threw the remains in the toilet.
It is unclear how the scorpion got onto the flight, although the most likely scenario is that it snuck onboard inside someone’s luggage. United Airlines is investigating the incident.
This is not the first time a scorpion had made its way onto the cabin and bit a passenger. In 2015, an Alaska Airlines flight was forced to return to its origin airport in Los Angeles after a woman onboard was stung by a scorpion. The woman declined medical attention upon arrival.
Here’s the punchline: upon landing in Calgary, emergency personnel came onboard the plane to examine Richard at which point he may have made the single biggest mistake in his life: “He showed no sign of distress, according to an EMS spokesperson, and declined medical attention.”
That particular choice of words likely prevented Richard from becoming richer by several million dollars, something the infamous David Dao of “drag and drop” fame is eagerly looking forward to with his lawsuit of United Airlines.
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