Sayap Citilink Dihinggapi Lebah di Kualanamu Medan Disorot Media Asing
Packed Plane is Grounded for 90 Minutes after Huge Swarm of Bees Settles on Its Wing
Editor : Ismail Gani
Translator : Novita Cahyadi
ADA BANYAK alasan mengapa sebuah pesawat komersial harus menunda perjalanan.
Namun, baru-baru ini penumpang dalam penerbangan Citilink di Indonesia tersengat kejadian yang tidak biasa, akhir pekan lalu - setelah salah satu sayap pesawat ditutupi sekumpulan lebah.
Penerbangan komuter, yang penuh dengan penumpang, akan bertolak dari Bandara Internasional Kualanamu di Medan, Provinsi Sumatera Utara, saat ribuan serangga menutupi sayap pesawat.
Foto-foto yang diambil dari dalam pesawat memperlihatkan lebih dari setengah sayapnya tertutup oleh kawanan lebah, sementara lebah lain melayang di dekatnya.
Para penumpang harus sabar menanti lebih dari 90 menit menantikan petugas pemadam kebakaran setempat, yang mengusir ribuan lebah dengan semburan air.
Vice President Corporate Communications Citilink Indonesia Benny S Butarbutar mengatakan: "Pukul 12:30 siang kawanan lebah diusir dari sayap pesawat dengan menyemprotkan air oleh unit pemadam kebakaran sehingga sayap pesawat kembali bersih."
Dia menambahkan bahwa pesawat tersebut diperiksa dengan seksama oleh pekerja pemeliharaan sebelum diizinkan melakukan perjalanan.
Insiden ini bukan pertama kali terjadi, tentunya.
Pada Agustus 2012, maskapai penerbangan Delta dari Pittsburgh ke New York tertunda setelah puluhan ribu lebah madu memadati sayap pesawat.
Setelah tertunda lebih dari satu jam, peternak lebah setempat dipanggil untuk mengumpulkan serangga - yang dianggap sebagai spesies yang dilindungi di AS.
"Mereka bersiap-siap untuk bahan bakar dan mereka sampai di tikungan pesawat dan di sayap kanan ada sekelompok lebah madu,' kata peternak lebah Stephen Repasky dari Meadow Sweet Bouldaries kepada CBS Pittsburgh seperti dilansir MailOnline.
THERE ARE numerous reasons why a chartered flight might be delayed.
But recent passengers on a Citilink Indonesia flight were stung by a rather unusual occurrence, earlier this week - after one of the plane's wings was covered in bees.
The commuter flight, which was loaded with passengers, was about to depart from Indonesia's Kualanamu International Airport, which serves the North Sumatra province, when thousands of the insects descended.
Images taken from inside the craft show more than half if the wing completely covered by the swarm, while other bees hover nearby.
Frustrated holiday-makers were left waiting more than 90 minutes for intervention from the local fire service, who dislodged the insects with jets of water.
Citilink corporate vice president, Benny Butarbutar, said: 'At 12:30pm the bees were removed by spraying the wing with water from the airport fire extinguisher unit so that the wings would be clean again.'
He added that the aircraft was carefully checked over by maintenance workers before being allowed to make its journey.
Not that this is an aviation first, of course.
In August 2012 a Delta flight from Pittsburgh to New York was delayed after tens of thousands of honeybees descended on the plane's wing.
After a delay of more than an hour, a local beekeeper was called in to collect the insects - which are deemed a protected species in the US.
'They were getting ready to fuel and they came around the corner of the plane and right there on the wing is a cluster of honeybees,' Master beekeeper Stephen Repasky of Meadow Sweet Apiaries told CBS Pittsburgh.
