Pictured: Interior cabin of a US Airways Airbus A330-243
Click to view full size photo at Airliners.net
Contact photographer Peter Van Dyke

An Atlanta to N. Carolina US Airways jet was delayed today due to falling maggots.

Maggots were falling from an overhead compartment inside the plane. When the compartment was examined, the source appeared to be a container of meat that had been in the plane since Monday.

The plane returned to the gate and the bin was cleaned before the flight continued on to NC. In NC, the plane was taken into maintenance and fumigated.

George’s Point of View

How is it that the meat was overlooked for two days? Doesn’t the flight crew and maintenance check the bins? Do you have any idea how rancid meat would get in two days during hot summer days in the south, in hundred degree weather? Even if they didn’t see it, surely they smelled it…And who is to say that the meat has been there since Monday? Maybe its been there even longer? If they’re not inspecting it every day, how can they have any idea HOW long it was there?

I am surprised that a plane is not fully inspected on a daily basis–in fact, between each flight–in search of something more dangerous than rotting meat.

How far does security extend? Passengers go through security. You’d think that compartments aboard a plane that carries passengers would undergo a thorough search after every flight.