Scorpion on plane stings man during flight from Seattle to Alaska

A man travelling on a flight between Seattle and Alaska got the surprise of his life when he was stung by a scorpion. Jeff Ellis had dozed off about three hours into the trip and awoke when he felt something tickling his arm.



"I felt it on my shirt sleeve and brushed it off - I thought it was a little spider or something," Mr Ellis said. "Then I felt it back on my elbow." The 55-year-old grabbed it with a napkin and girlfriend Suzanne Foster called a flight attendant over, who tossed the scorpion into a clear plastic bag.

He then had to wait a nerve-wracking 30 minutes before the flight landed, checking himself for signs of a fatal allergic reaction. "In the movies, scorpions kill people," he said. "I was just nervous, on edge, making sure that my heart was beating normal, that I wasn't sweating."


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The incident baffled emergency services on the ground, who had to turn to Google for help in what to do, as scorpions are not common to Alaska. Fortunately, the traveller did not suffer any long-term harm, with only a mark left on his arm to remind him of the bizarre episode. The airline said it had never had a poisonous creature on one of its flights before, and the scorpion had probably got on the plane when it stopped in Texas.