A US Airways flight from Atlanta to Charlotte had to return to the airport gate on Monday evening after writhing maggots rained down on passengers in one row while the plane was taxiing. The source of the critters? A container of rotten meat that a passenger somehow brought on the plane and stashed in the overhead bin.

“I felt like they were crawling all over me because it only takes one maggot to upset your world,” [a passenger] said. “And as they’re telling us to stay calm and seated, I see a maggot looking back at me and I’m thinking, ‘These are anaerobic, flesh-eating larvae that the flight attendants don’t have to sit with.'”

Passengers left the plane while a cleaning crew intervened on the ground, and US Airways fumigated the aircraft after the flight reached Charlotte. The airline put the owner of the spoiled meat on a different flight.

Video: Maggots Fall from Overhead Bin on U.S. Airways Flight [Fox 5 Atlanta]
Maggots force plane back to gate in Atlanta [AP] (Thanks, Evelyn!)

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