A swarm of bees sparked an emergency situation when they flew into the engine of a Mango Airlines aircraft at King Shaka International airport in La Mercy, South Africa. An estimated 20,000 bees were removed from the engine by a team of bee experts from privately owned company A Bee C, who were called to the scene. One expert said that the incident was extremely unusual and that the bees were probably resting before flying on, rather than attempting to make a home of the aircraft, as bees tend to prefer secluded wood cavities to hot, greasy aircraft nacelles. It took less than 25 minutes for the colony to inhabit the engine, but the net result was much lengthier delays to three passenger flights at Durban's primary airport. Once the airport authorities had given the bee team approval to access the runway, the removal of the swarm was a quick job, according A Bee C's Melvyn Dawson. "We have encountered some unusual bee removals, but this was a first for me," he added.
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