Delta passenger 'was terrified' when worms fell on her

Travel

by Yaron Steinbuch

A passenger on a maggot-infested Delta flight has recounted the moment he laid eyes on a woman being infected by disgusting stowaways.

“She was scared,” said Philippe Schott, who was on the infected plane from Amsterdam to Detroit on Tuesday. He told Fox 2 Detroit. “She was just trying to fight off these worms.”

He said he looked across the aisle and saw at least a dozen caterpillars falling on the woman from the overhead bin.

Another passenger had placed carry-on luggage – more like a carcass – stuffed with fish wrapped in newspapers in the receptacle, which exuded a foul odor.

“I don't really know what was going through my mind. I was trying to process it – disgust is one thing, of course.

“We had to wait there until help actually arrived,” he added.

“They found out there was rotten fish in there,” Schott, a Dutch native who lives in Iowa, told the outlet. “I saw everyone's reaction to opening the bag, which was just an immediate pinch on the nose.”

According to the report, the man who apparently put the stinky seafood there stood up and claimed it was there.

“There was a fish there,” the passenger explained as he opened it. “That's the only word I've heard since I've been sitting, just the word 'fish.' WXYZ said.

“So I knew at that point there was a rotten fish, and a bunch of worms were coming out of it.” He said.

The flight attendants took the spoiled cargo to the back of the plane and the pilot informed the passengers that they would be returning to Amsterdam.

Shotti boarded another flight back to the United States a few hours later.

“Diverting the plane was the right decision because I was five rows back, and by the time we got to landing, one of the worms had made its way into my row,” he told the outlet.

He added: “I can only imagine what it would have been like if we had stayed on that plane for another seven hours.”

Delta did not immediately respond to a request for comment by The Post.

“We apologize to the customers of Flight 133 AMS-DTW whose flight was interrupted due to an incorrectly packed carry-on bag,” the airline said in a statement to WXYZ.

“The plane returned to the gate and passengers were put on the next available flight. The plane was taken out of service for cleaning,” she added.

A passenger named Kelsey tweeted about the sickening incident in a since-deleted post on X.

“It's really nice to spend 2 hours on an 8-hour Delta flight to Amsterdam and find out there are rotten fish and maggots riding with us,” wrote the user, who told the Daily Mail that the passenger responsible was later arrested.

The airline gave travelers 8,000 free miles and compensation for a hotel room and a $30 meal ticket if the flight was delayed overnight, Kelsey said.