Tarantula Delays Flight By 3 Hours After Escaping Container In Cargo Hold

Delta Airlines was delayed due to a scary hijacker. A tarantula spider.

It held up a flight for three hours after it came out of its container and into the cargo hold. The baboon tarantulas, which are native to Africa, may be about six to nine inches long and would bite at the slightest provocation, according to HNGN.

The tarantula was noticed in the cargo hold by an airline employee in Delta Flight 1525, which was supposed to be launched at 7 p.m. from Baltimore-Washington Thurgood Marshall Airport. The Airline officials and its handler searched around for it even when the Delta fight Wednesday night got grounded from Baltimore to Atlanta.

"There was a cargo shipment of insects that was breached," Delta spokesman Morgan Durrant told CNN.

Passengers were shifted to another plane that left at 10 p.m. It made them three hours late, though they reached safely. "We have to make the safe decision on that -- being bitten by a tarantula is not a good thing," the pilot said.

"They were able to capture it, and they contacted the handler," Delta spokesman Brian Kruse said. "It was not in the passenger cabin and customers were not on the aircraft when the tarantula was discovered," Durrant said.

"Safety and security are our top priority," Kruse added.