A holiday flight to Mexico had to make an unplanned landing in Bermuda because of a horrible smell caused by 100 pigs in the cargo hold.
Flight KL685, operated by Dutch airline KLM, was flying from Amsterdam to Mexico City just after 3pm on Friday with 259 passengers on board when the pilot submitted an unusual landing request six hours into the flight.
The captain said that live pigs in the cargo hold were emitting such an ‘obnoxious’ odor that the plane would need to make an unplanned stop for a break in fresh air before continuing on their journey.
When the tower asked the pilot to confirm whether there were live pigs in the cargo hold, he replied: ‘Yeah, and they are probably the starter of the inconvenience so they have to be offloaded, but we’ll see about that later on.’
The aircraft touched down at LF Wade International Airport in Bermuda late Friday, where passengers and crew were put up in hotels for the night due to the reported ‘oxygen issue’ onboard.
The 100 pigs were unloaded and transported to a ‘safe location’ on the island for their unplanned ‘vacation stay’, according to Bermuda Flyer.
Once the Boeing 787 Dreamliner had been properly ventilated, they set off towards Mexico City on Saturday around 10pm with a nearly 30-hour delay.
But the pigs were stranded on the island in the north Atlantic until last night, when an empty cargo plane arrived in Bermuda to pick up the pigs and transport them to Mexico City.
Flight KL685, operated by Dutch airline KLM, was flying from Amsterdam to Mexico City just after 3pm on Friday with 259 passengers on board when the pilot submitted an unusual landing request six hours into the flight (file image of a KLM flight setting off at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport)
The captain said that live pigs in the cargo hold were emitting such an ‘obnoxious’ odor that the plane would need to make an unplanned stop for a break in fresh air before continuing on their journey (stock image)
A flight tracker shows the journey of the KLM flight, which had to make an unplanned landing in Bermuda
‘The welfare of the animals is a priority,’ Bermuda’s government said in a statement about caring for the pigs while they were on the island.
‘Government veterinarian Dr. Jonathan Nisbett and animal care workers from the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources have been caring for the pigs and ensuring they are well looked after,’ it added.
A Skyport spokesperson said: ‘The 259 passengers and crew, who surely never expected their journey to go hog wild, were processed through immigration and are being accommodated at local hotels, thanks to the swift coordination between Skyport, local authorities, and Delta Air Lines, KLM’s airline partner.
‘Meanwhile, the pigs – living high on the hog during their impromptu holiday stopover – are being cared for at a secure location on the island, with assistance from a government veterinarian.’
After both the passenger plane and the cargo plane transporting the pigs had departed from Bermuda, the island government said: ‘The coordinated efforts reflect the island’s commitment to care for all visitors – whether they walk on two legs or trot on four.’
It is not clear whether the live pigs were loaded into the wrong place in the plane’s cargo hold, therefore enabling their smell to penetrate the cockpit.
