A Tarantula spider was responsible for delaying a flight by three hours after it slipped out of its container and into the cargo hold, according the Examiner. Airline officials and its handler looked for the creepy crawly while the Delta fight Wednesday night from Baltimore to Atlanta was grounded.
Delta Flight 1525, scheduled take off at 7 p.m. from Baltimore-Washington Thurgood Marshall Airport, was halted from departing when an airline employee noticed the spider in the cargo hold.
"There was a cargo shipment of insects that was breached," Delta spokesman Morgan Durrant told CNN.
Passengers were loaded onto another plane instead, which departed at about 10 p.m., which made them three hours late, but safe.
"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, USA Today reported.
"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.
Native to Africa, baboon tarantulas can be between six and nine inches long and are aggressive, often rearing up at even the slightest threat and will bite.
