Pandemonium as 2 pigeons take over Delta plane cabin, panicking passengers

Move over, snakes. There’s a new animal terrorizing flight passengers – and this time they have wings.

A Delta Air Lines flight got off to a very chaotic start last Saturday, when not one, but two pigeons inside the plane’s cabin caused brief pandemonium among the passengers.

The flight, which was bound for Wisconsin from Minneapolis over the Memorial Day weekend, hadn’t even pulled back from the gate, when a fowl friend decided to make itself known.

An aptly-named Instagram user, Tom Caw, shared details from the scene, writing that he heard another passenger tell a flight attendant that there was a pigeon on the plane.

“The pilot got on the mic and confirmed a pigeon was on the plane, and said he had no experience with the situation,” Caw wrote.

It wasn’t long until, Caw wrote, “baggage handlers boarded and carried the pigeon off. People applauded. A young girl asked if she could pet it.”

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But that wasn’t the end of the pigeon-on-a-plane saga. As the flight taxied out, preparing for takeoff, another pigeon was spotted, this time flying around the cabin and causing even more chaos.

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Caw’s footage captured startled passengers, one frantically screaming, as a fellow traveller unsuccessfully tried to capture the bird with a piece of clothing.

“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. “Pilot told him it was the second time for him—the first being half an hour earlier.”

He confirmed that baggage handlers, once again, were called aboard to deal with the unexpected passenger.

Delta issued a statement apologizing for the disruption to the flight, which was headed for Madison, Wis.

“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,” the company said in a statement to NBC News.

“My guess is the pigeons were tired of flying and wanted snacks,” Caw wrote on Instagram. “They didn’t know this flight to MSN is too short for Delta to offer beverage/snack service.”