Bees Buzz Burbank Aircraft

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The buzz around Burbank Airport isn’t the usual industry gossip. People are talking about the planes and the bees. The airport fire department has been kept busy recently dealing with swarms of bees that apparently think engine nacelles make ideal bee condos. The crew of a chartered King Air returned to the plane after a 25-minute paperwork break in the local FBO to find thousands of bees layered around the exhaust pipe of the left engine. They weren’t quite sure what to do but the line staff had already called the, as it turns out, well-experienced fire department. It was the department’s 20th bee complaint this year. Fire retardant foam seems to work just as effectively as an insecticide and after a dousing and rinsing the plane was deemed fit to fly. A few stragglers that found their way into the cockpit and cabin were sucked out with vacuum cleaners and an uneventful trip to San Francisco followed. However, the pilots were unprepared for what they found inside the cowling at the end of the trip. Thousands of bee bodies and a few live hitchhikers formed a four-inch mat on the bottom of the cowling. Wonder where this comes up in the POH? Click through for a copy of the pdf sent to AVweb detailing the events — pictures included.

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