Millions of bees bound for Alaska died on a Delta Air Lines flight after the plane was left on the tarmac in Atlanta, Georgia.
Alaska Public Media reported on Wednesday that a Delta plane carrying a shipment of bees was diverted to Atlanta. The bees died in the city.
The shipment of 200 crates was ordered by Sarah's Alaska Honey and carried 800 pounds of bees and was worth an estimated $48,000.
The crates were due to leave from California to Alaska. The bees didn't fit on the Seattle-bound flight so they were diverted to Atlanta.
The bees were transferred to the tarmac the next day over fears that the bees were escaping, after Delta told them they would have to wait in a cooler. The temperature in Atlanta on the day they were left was 80 degrees.
She panicked when she found out that the honeybees' pheromones are attractive to other honeybees that are native to the area. It was harder to rescue those in the crates because the bees were outside.
Edward Morgan, a beekeeper in Georgia, told Atlanta radio stationWABE that he and more than 20 others from the Metro Atlanta Beekeepers Association rushed.
Julia Mahood, a Georgia master beekeeper, said it was devastating to see so many dead bees.
Delta was made aware of the shipment situation and quickly engaged the appropriate internal teams to assess the situation, according to Catherine Morrow. We have taken immediate action to make sure events like this don't happen in the future.
Delta has been in contact with the customer directly to apologize for the unfortunate situation, according to Catherine Salm.
Insider did not get a response from Delta or McElrea when they asked for comment outside of normal working hours.
According to an interview with The New York Times, Alaskans increasingly rely on imports for bees to pollinate crops.
The New York Times reported that MacElrea said that people don't understand how dependent we are on honeybees for pollination.
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