Civil Aviation

Volaris Flight was Delayed for Two Hours, Due to Mosquito Swarm in the cabin

A video that has gone viral online depicts a biblical-scale mosquito swarm that caused a Mexican flight to be delayed for a few hours.

Not for the first time , a swarm of mosquitoes invaded the Mexican airline Volaris A321-271NX plane (XA-VLC) cabin, which was operating flight Y4735 between Guadalajara (GDL) and Mexico City (MEX) on 06 October.
Initially scheduled for a 4:30 p.m., was postponed until 7:00 p.m. pic.twitter.com/ntsM8XreUe— FL360aero (@fl360aero) October 11, 2023

The flight history for VOI221 on October 6 indicates that the intended departure time of 4:30 pm CST was changed to 6:59 pm CST.

The flight crew can be seen spraying insect repellent as a swarm of mosquitoes swirls around the cabin in a video captured by passenger Elizabeth Esmeralda Minjarez Corona. Speaking, Corona claimed that the mosquitoes persisted until the lights were turned out.

A Volaris flight traveling within Mexico from Guadalajara to Mexico City on Friday, October 6, was delayed by more than two hours due to a mosquito infestation, local media reported. pic.twitter.com/wA4oyXZJTK— Storyful (@Storyful) October 11, 2023

Although it is unclear how the mosquito swarm access to the 200-skeeter aircraft, this is not the first time they have boarded a flight at Guadalajara International Airport.

According to report, a similar mile-high mosquito infestation occurred aboard a Volaris aircraft in 2019. And also Guadalajara International Airport is close to places with flooding and a lot of vegetation, as well as some surrounding bodies of water that are contaminated, making it an ideal setting for the “proliferation of mosquitoes.”

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