A creature that United Airlines said "appeared to be a scorpion" fell from an overhead bin during a flight on Thursday, reportedly stinging a man seated below.
Flight attendants immediately assisted the man, whose identity was not confirmed, with guidance provided by physicians throughout the incident during a flight from Houston to Calgary, Canada.
While it remains unclear how the possible scorpion got on the plane, United said the passenger's injuries were not life-threatening.
"We reached out to the customer and offered him compensation," United spokesman Charles Hobart told BuzzFeed News.
The airlines is also currently looking into the incident to see if it was in fact a scorpion. But just the possibility of anything falling onto and stinging a passenger only adds to a very bad week for United.
It also comes as people aren't quite done trolling the airline for an incident earlier in the week in which officers dragged a man off an overbooked flight, prompting widespread outrage after cell phone footage was posted online.
I SAID WE NEED THE SEAT yelled the scorpion. https://t.co/twrBwAg0gN
And every step, and misstep, this week was thrown back at the company and its CEO.
Did the scorpion ask for volunteers first or nah https://t.co/UHXkoi6YBy
@HarmfulOpinions "A scorpion stung me! Is there a doctor on this plane?!" "No, we punched him and kicked him off th… https://t.co/AlYULOnZ0v
@TravelLeisure Legally, United reserves the right to drop live scorpions on your face. Should have read the fine print.
“And as the passenger asked ‘Why?’, the scorpion replied: ‘You knew this was a United flight when you boarded.’” https://t.co/LqnPDLrEXe
@TravelLeisure @_cingraham The scorpion was made employee of the year by @united
Of course, people also trolled the media frenzy to reveal the injured passenger's "troubled past."
well, I'm not totally sure how to feel about this yet. was the man an angel or no angel
I heard this scorpion served three months in prison for stinging a guy in a bar fight in 1998. https://t.co/FBCP5vMzQG
@TravelLeisure Richard has a troubled past. He's no angel.
It's been...a month for United Airlines.
@TravelLeisure It's like an ad lib creative writing exercise. Short story using the following random words Leggings… https://t.co/mL2vTDhtTL
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