Bee trapped in instrument panel forces airplane to land

The following news might seem quite "unbeelievable" (sorry), but it is absolutely true. An airplane on its way from Southampton, England to Dublin, Ireland on Saturday was forced to turn back shortly after take-off due to some trouble in the cockpit. The problem? There was a bee. But not, like, a bee flying around and making the pilots really nervous. No, the bee had become trapped inside the plane's instrument panel. To make the situation even better, the airline was Flybe. More like FlyBEE, am I right? (That was the last one, promise.)

The official explanation from Flybe was that flight BE384 returned after take-off due to a technical issue. They want to clarify that it "wasn't an emergency landing" — meaning there wasn't mass panic and hysteria over a bee — "but a standard return from airborne." Once the plane landed, all the passengers got off in a normal manner.

The engines are whirring, The Flybees are buzzing, The crew here are waiting, For a full day of serving...

— Flybe ✈ (@flybe) June 7, 2015

Flybe says that engineers did look into what happened, and confirmed that a bee became stuck in one of the instruments, getting in from outside the plane. It wasn't made clear what instrument or how the plane's flight affected, but the airline added that the safety of its passengers is the top priority, and that's why turned back after take-off.

Including the flight's turn around, the passengers were delayed for a total of two hours. The airline apologized for the inconvenience, adding that in the future they wouldn't let anything else make a beeline for the flight controls (ok, I lied).

VIA Mashable