By
Associated Press
About five million bees that were transported to Alaska last weekend were diverted to Atlanta by Delta Air Lines, where most of them died after sitting for hours in boxes on the ground in very hot temperatures.
The bees had been purchased from a California dealer by Sarah McElrea, an Alaskan beekeeper.
They were to be used to pollinate apple orchards and nurseries
in that state, where they are not native.
But the bees were moved from their original route to Anchorage, Alaska, and instead were put on a flight to Atlanta, from where they would be transferred to a plane bound for Anchorage, according to published reports.
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McElrea said she became concerned when the 800-pound shipment didn't arrive in Atlanta in time to catch the connecting flight.
The next day, he said, Delta informed him that some bees had escaped, so airline workers placed the boxes with the bees in an airline cargo area.
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Panicking, McElrea contacted a beekeeper in Atlanta, who rushed to the airport to find that many had died of heat and starvation, according to
The New York Times
.
Delta described the event as an "unfortunate situation."
In an emailed statement, an airline spokeswoman told The Associated Press on Friday that Delta "was aware of the shipping situation ... and quickly engaged the appropriate internal teams to assess the situation."
"We have taken immediate steps to implement further measures to ensure that events of this nature do not occur in the future," he added.
The spokeswoman said Delta apologized to McElrea.
The airline declined an interview request.
Edward Morgan, an Atlanta beekeeper, called more than a dozen people to the airport to try to save the remaining bees.
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"It's devastating to see so many dead," Julia Mahood, a beekeeper from Georgia, told Atlanta broadcaster WABE.
"Bundles of dead bees that didn't survive because they were left outside without food and basically fell victim to Delta gear."
McElrea, who runs a business called Sarah's Alaska Honey, said he has often received Delta shipments of bees from California to Alaska via Seattle.
The airline told him that last weekend's shipment would not fit on the plane and would be rerouted through Atlanta.
McElrea said his supplier in California will replace
the shipment, which was worth about $48,000
.
And he added that he hopes Delta will help, though he acknowledged that shipping live animals carries risks.
