Plane Passengers Horrified as Maggots Rain Down from Luggage Compartment

"She was just trying to kind of fight off these maggots."

Maggot High Club

What's the deal with all these gross plane incidents?

That's been an overwhelming theme in 2024 as airline foibles — including a door literally blowing off of a Boeing 737 mid-flight and a man dying aboard a Lufthansa after bleeding out from his mouth and nose — continue to make headlines.

Now, we have another to add to the list less than two months into the year: a woman being barraged with maggots on a Delta flight from Amsterdam to Detroit, which as a Michigan Fox affiliate reports was rerouted back to its Dutch takeoff location after the grody debacle.

Phillip Schote, the woman's Netherlands-born fellow passenger who now lives in Iowa, told Fox 2 that he was shocked when he looked across the aisle to see her covered in at least a dozen squirming bugs.

"She was freaking out," Schotte said. "She was just trying to kind of fight off these maggots."

Carrion Compartment

To make things even more horrifying, flight attendants soon found the source of the maggots: a rotting fish inside a passenger's carry-ons.

"They found out that there was a rotten fish in there," Schotte told the Detroit news station. "I did see everyone’s reaction to the bag being opened, which was just an immediate pinching of the nose."

The man who'd put the fish there apparently fessed up, and after the undoubtedly peeved flight staff removed it, they informed the passengers that they were headed back to Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport.

As for the chatty Dutch-Iowan who gave the interviews about the fish and maggot situation, he was glad to de-plane and get on a flight sans rot.

"I am surprised that both a rotten fish and live maggots were not picked up on by security," Schotte said.

As The Independent reports, Delta awarded the entire flight, including the implicated woman, 8,000 air miles in restitution for the debacle. Passengers were re-booked onto the next Michigan-bound flight, and those who had to stay overnight were put up in Amsterdam hotels on the airline's dime, plus were given a $30 voucher for food.

It sounds like a noisome ordeal — but compared to other, significantly more serious airline accidents that have already happened this year, at least they didn't have to watch anyone die.

More on planes: Partiers Attempt to Celebrate New Year's Twice With Flight Between Time Zones, Accidentally Land in Wrong Year