Scorpion on a plane: terrified passenger stung on flight

An air passenger described how he feared for his life on a flight between Seattle and Alaska when he found a scorpion stinging him on his arm. Scroll down to see video!

Jeff Ellis, 55, described how he had dozed off about three hours into the flight when he awoke when he felt something tickling his arm.

'I felt it on my shirt sleeve and brushed it off - I thought it was a little spider or something,' Mr Ellis said. 'Then I felt it back on my elbow.'

He described how he grabbed it with a napkin and girlfriend Suzanne Foster called a flight attendant over, who tossed the scorpion into a clear plastic bag, terrifying children who were sitting nearby.

Mr Ellis then had to wait 30 minutes before the flight landed, checking himself for signs of a fatal allergic reaction.

'In the movies, scorpions kill people,' he said.

'I was just nervous, on edge, making sure that my heart was beating normal, that I wasn't sweating.'

The incident baffled emergency services on the ground, who had to turn to Google for help in what to do, as scorpions are not common to Alaska.

Fortunately, Mr Ellis did not suffer any long-term harm, with only a mark left on his arm to remind him of the bizarre episode.

The airline said it had never had a poisonous creature on one of its flights before, and the scorpion had probably got on the plane when it stopped in Texas.

Related articles

Girl bitten by poisonous snake in the New Forest

Men arrested with 40 pythons in their luggage