Flight delays at Naia

MANILA, Philippines—It was always the birds before. Now it’s the bees.

A swarm of bees disrupted operations and caused flight delays at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) Terminal 2 on Thursday.

Airport employees were stunned when bees suddenly swarmed around the control panels of at least five aerobridges at Gates 32 to 38 at around 1 p.m. Thursday, preventing controllers from attaching the movable walkways to arriving airplanes, according to Andrew Balde, assistant manager at Terminal 2.

Some airport workers, including wheelchair attendant Rodolfo Gabriel, were reportedly stung by the bees.

Airport hazard

Airport authorities immediately ordered the temporary closure of the terminal gates, saying the incident posed a danger to passengers and airport workers.

Arriving and departing passengers were made to use the service stairs down the ramp. Airport buses were also used to ferry arriving passengers to the baggage claim area.

Balde said the incident prevented aerobridge operators from getting near the control booth for fear that they would be stung.

He said maintenance workers used vacuum cleaners to clear the boarding bridges of the bees, which took about half an hour.

Balde said terminal operations returned to normal as soon as the boarding bridges were cleared of the insects.

He said pest control experts have been deployed and started fumigating the terminal.

Rare attack

Longtime employees of Terminal 2 said it was the first time for the airport to be attacked by bees.

“This incident is quite rare. This is the first time it happened. Usually, there are bird strikes,” Balde said.

Several bird strike incidents in the past caused damage to aircraft and delayed flights, he said.

Balde claimed that no beehives have been found in the terminal.

“Besides we regularly conduct cleaning and fumigation. We suspect the bees came from nearby areas since the bridge to which the planes connect is open,” he said.

Some airport workers believe that the bees could have been brought by a passenger and had escaped from their container.

“But how can that be when at least five aerobridges were affected? That would have been possible if the bees were found in only one boarding bridge,” countered another employee.