Scare in the air: Passenger finds scorpion in luggage cabin of Lion Air flight

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Remember the Hollywood movie Snakes on a Plane where the passengers have to deal with poisonous and deadly snakes thousands of feet up in the sky? Passengers of a Lion Air flight had to deal with a similar plot, except that it was not a movie, but a real-life incident involving scorpions.

A huge scorpion was spotted crawling in the overhead storage compartment of a Lion Air JT 293 flight to Jakarta from Pekanbaru, in Indonesia on February 14. A woman noticed the 12-inch long creature after she opened the cabin to take out her hand baggage upon landing. She started shouting in fear which created a situation of panic among other passengers. Karim Taslin, one of the passengers, posted a video on Instagram of the scorpion crawling.

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Kejadian tak terduga pada penerbangan Lion Air JT 293, Pku-Jkt, 14 Feb 2019. Tiba-tiba muncul kalajengking (scorpion) di tempat penyimpanan bagasi di atas tempat duduk. Persis di atas kepala saya. Semoga ada langkah penanganan yang serius dan pihak Lion Air. “To use this video in a commercial player or in broadcasts, please email to: video@viralpress.com" #kalajengkingdipesawat #kalajengkingdilionair #hororkalajengkinglionair #terbangbersamakalajengking #scorpionatlionair #flightwithscorpion

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A post shared by Karim Taslim (@karimtaslim) on Feb 14, 2019 at 6:24pm PST

He said, "When the plane had landed, one passenger was taking their things out of the compartment, that's when suddenly the scorpion appeared above our seat”, reported The Sun. He added, "I was in row 19 with two other passengers, an elderly married couple. When we saw the scorpion above our heads, we rushed out as fast as we could."

After the cabin crew heard people shouting, they came to see what caused panic and began searching for the scorpion. The deadly Asian forest scorpion by then had gone inside the plane’s roof. 

"When I think back it makes me shiver. The scorpion could have dropped on our heads and stung us", said Taslin. The Asian forest scorpion is considered to be one of the most aggressive species found in Indonesia.

Lion Air released a statement saying that an investigation is being carried out. The airline stated that the Boeing 737 was sprayed a week ago to remove any creatures if present. Spokesperson Danang Mandala Prihantoro said: "Ground service officers and technicians immediately carried out in-depth search and thorough handling of the aircraft after the passengers and cargo were removed, but no animals were found."

This is not the first incident of a scorpion found on a plane. A woman was stung by a scorpion in a plane that was ready to take-off from Los Angeles. Other than scorpions, ants, bees and cockroaches were reported to be found on airplanes.