If you had to choose between walking from Minneapolis, Minnesota to Madison, Wisconsin, or getting on a plane instead, you’d obviously choose to fly, right? It just makes sense. In addition to saving roughly 100 hours, the plane would also get you there well-rested and generally pretty clean. Meanwhile, if you walked, you’d show up exhausted and dripping in sweat, if you even made it in the first place. So you can understand why two pigeons might also prefer to save a little energy and time on their way to see their Wisconsin friends. Still, Delta kicked them off, NBC News reports.
The first bird was spotted before takeoff by a passenger named, and I kid you not, Tom Caw. The pilot then returned to the gate to kick the pigeon off. Following a minor squabble, the flight crew was able to do exactly that, allowing the plane to head back out onto the runway with only a minor delay. Before it could take off, though, a second pigeon appeared, flying down the aisle, ruffling the feathers of its fellow passengers and forcing the pilot to turn around, once again, to return to the gate and kick yet another pigeon off his plane.
“Pilot said when he radioed the control tower about us coming back due to a pigeon, the guy said that was a first for him,” Caw wrote on an Instagram post. “Pilot told him it was the second time for him—the first being half an hour earlier.”
Stay seated during takeoff
In a statement, the airline said, “Delta appreciates the careful actions of our people and our customers to safely remove two birds from the aircraft prior to departure, and we apologize to our customers for the delay in their travel.”
Of course, it does seem unfair to force those pigeons to flap their little wings all the way to Wisconsin, but on the other hand, if you got up while your flight was taxiing down the runway because you needed to pee or were feeling peckish, there’s a good chance you’d also get kicked off. Sure, the passenger in question was cute and tiny, but Delta can’t afford to give a hoot when safety becomes an issue. Once one passenger gets away with it, everyone else is going to want to do the same thing, ending the flight in a coup.
Additionally, while Delta didn’t mention it in its statement, neither pigeon appeared to have purchased a ticket for the flight, and airlines have an obligation to kick unticketed passengers off the plane, even if they don’t plan to use a seat. Sorry, but rules are rules. It’s a safety issue, too, and who knows what those birds could have been planning. A coo? That seems unlikely, but we’ll never know.
Regardless, the passengers on that flight definitely have something to write home about now.
