Maggots spill from overhead bin on Detroit-bound Delta flight

Pick your poison: Snakes on a plane, or maggots?

A passenger dealt with the smaller version Tuesday while flying from Amsterdam to Detroit.

One moment she was settling in for nine-hour flight on Delta Air Lines. The next, soft-bodied legless larva were falling upon her.

“She was freaking out,” passenger Philip Schotte told Fox 2 Detroit. “She was just trying to... fight off these maggots.”

Schotte, who was sitting across the aisle, counted a dozen of the disgusting creatures. They came from a rotten fish wrapped in a newspaper in the overhead compartment.

The plane, which was an hour into the flight, promptly returned to Amsterdam Airport Schiphol.

Delta released a statement saying that a carry-on bag was improperly packed and that passengers were placed on the next available flight from Amsterdam. It said the aircraft was removed from service for cleaning.

“We apologize to the customers of flight 133 AMS-DTW,” the statement read.

Schotte told WXYZ that he first realized something was wrong when the other passenger kept making a repetitive motion on the empty seat beside her. As he continued to watch, he spotted the maggots.

They finally got the attention of the flight attendants, who began searching for the source of the infestation. When they opened the overhead bin, several more maggots dropped out.

The opening of the overhead bin also unleashed an unholy smell that caused several passengers to hold their noses, said Schotte. The attendants took the offending fish to the back of the plane.

“She was very freaked out," Schotte told WXYZ about the other passenger. "Especially when I saw a maggot fall on her, she got especially freaked out.”

He said a male passenger told the attendants he was responsible for the fish but Schotte didn’t know if any action was taken against him.

Schotte said he was surprised such cargo wasn’t noticed by airport security.

He got on another flight after several hours.

After the maggots were discovered, Schotte moved to another seat five rows back but, before the plane had returned to Amsterdam, one of the creatures had slithered all the way to his new seat.

"I can only imagine what it would've been like had we been on that plane for seven more hours,” he told WXYZ.