THIS is the incredible moment a Boeing 787 pilot was forced to announce an emergency landing due to the stench of 100 pigs on board.
The live animals were in the cargo hold of the Dreamliner plane and ended up overwhelming the cockpit’s air supply mid-flight.
A KLM flight was forced to make an emergency landing in Bermuda due to the stench of 100 pigs on board (file photo)[/caption]
The smell of live animals overwhelmed the cockpit’s air supply[/caption]
Footage of the surreal exchange between the pilot and air traffic control captured the captain calmly explaining the bizarre situation that left 259 passengers and crew stranded in paradise.
The KLM Royal Dutch Airlines flight, travelling from Amsterdam to Mexico City on Friday.
But it was diverted to Bermuda after what the pilot described as “obnoxious cargo” disrupted the “oxygen environment” on the aircraft.
In a video shared on Instagram, the captain explains to air traffic control.
He is heard saying: “There’s a lot of obnoxious cargo coming from pigs probably, which may have something to do with the oxygen environment in the cockpit, so that’s why I’m diverting.”
The controller, audibly surprised, asks for clarification, to which the pilot confirms: “Yeah, and those are probably the start of the inconvenience, so they’ll probably have to be offloaded.”
The Dreamliner circled over Bermuda for clearance before landing at L.F. Wade International Airport.
There, the 100 pigs were promptly removed from the cargo hold and placed in a secure facility.
According to airport officials, the animals are now under the care of a Bermudan government veterinarian.
An airport spokesperson said: “The characteristic smell of the hundred pigs in the cargo hold prompted the crew to move to Bermuda for a breather and fresh air.”
While the pigs were the main culprits of the disruption, their removal wasn’t the end of the ordeal.
After landing, the crew reached their maximum legal work hours and could no longer operate the flight to Mexico City.
This forced passengers and crew to be accommodated overnight in local hotels, delaying their journey by over 24 hours.
The flight eventually resumed on Saturday evening, with the Dreamliner arriving in Mexico City in the early hours of Sunday morning.
This isn’t the first time an overpowering smell has caused chaos in the skies.
In 2018, a Sriwijaya Air flight in Indonesia descended into turmoil when passengers were greeted by the pungent smell of durians —widely regarded as the “world’s smelliest fruit.”
The domestic flight was scheduled to depart from Jakarta, but as soon as passengers boarded, complaints began pouring in about the stench wafting from sacks of durians stored in the baggage hold.
The fruit’s notoriously divisive odour — often compared to rotting onions, turpentine, or raw sewage — triggered gag reflexes and rising tensions among passengers, who demanded that the cargo be removed.
One passenger, Amir Zidane, described the experience online, writing: “When I entered the plane, I could already smell the scent of durian.
“I complained to the stewardess, but they told me to just fill out a complaint form.”
Zidane wasn’t alone in his outrage, as other passengers joined in, chanting their refusal to fly until the fruit was removed.
Meanwhile, a pilot of a transatlantic airliner flying from Germany to Mexico was forced to land in Ireland after spilling coffee on cockpit controls.
The hot liquid damaged an audio control panel, causing an electrical burning smell and smoke to gush into the cabin.
The incident happened in February 2019 and resulted in the Airbus A330 flight from Frankfurt in Germany to Cancun in Mexico being diverted to Shannon in Ireland.
The smoke stopped and the fumes did not result in injuries to any of the 11 crew or 326 passengers on board.