Cicadas overrun White House press plane, delay flight for 7 hours

https://www.mlive.com/news/2021/06/cicadas-overrun-white-house-press-plane-delay-flight-for-7-hours.html

A plane full of journalists traveling to cover President Joe Biden’s first overseas trip was delayed for several hours overnight after Brood X cicadas invaded the exterior of the plane. According to CNN and the Associated Press, the plane was scheduled to leave late Tuesday, but officials at Dulles International Airport had to find another plane after the cicadas swarmed the original.

The AP reports it is unclear exactly what issues were caused by the bugs and issues with the weather and crew rest helped lead to the lengthy delay. The flight was scheduled to leave around 9 p.m. Tuesday, but didn’t actually depart until approximately 4 a.m. Wednesday.

After shutting down the press plane, the cicadas also took a run at Biden as he arrived at Joint Base Andrews Wednesday for his own flight. As he was speaking with his Air Force greeter one of the bugs jumped on his neck, before he batted it away.

“Watch out for the cicadas,” Biden joked with reporters. “I just got one. It just got me.”

The chartered press plane is arranged in coordination with the White House but the journalists pay for their own flights. The journalists are headed to the United Kingdom to cover Biden’s trip, but the flight delay is not expected to impact coverage of those events.