This Is Why You Don’t Pack Rotting Food: Maggots Infest Plane’s Baggage Area

We know it’s tempting to squirrel away that food on the verge of rotting and bring it along on your next plane trip, you know, in case it’s still edible when you land. But anyone traveling on that same flight with you would really appreciate if you didn’t, you know, because going without your luggage while it’s de-maggoted is a big inconvenience.

Everyone on a flight from Brussels to Stockholm found they couldn’t pick up their bags when arriving at their destination, reports The Local, because maggots had infested the plane’s luggage area.

“When they opened the baggage area, maggots spilled out,” one passenger said.

Go ahead and feel grossed out, I’ll wait.

[pause for disgust to set in and be shaken off]

Brussels Airlines confirmed that Sunday’s infestation was the fault of one passenger who had packed expired food, prompting officials to take the all the luggage back to Brussels to be sanitized, while the bag containing maggots was destroyed.

“I can confirm that we have had sanitation problems with a passenger’s baggage, which apparently contained food which was expired and rotten,” an airline spokesman said. “It was transfer baggage from another continent.”

The bags were then flown back to Stockholm the next night, and we hope, finally maggot-free.

Maggot-infested baggage flown to Sweden [The Local]

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