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The sun was beating down on the pavement where the 727 was to be parked. Guillermo took another swig of water before going out to direct the aircraft to its final destination, Gate A25.
The aircraft made the turn as per Guillermo’s signals and he began directing them closer to the extendable jet bridge.
A bee buzzed Guillermo’s head and he shook it violently to get rid of it. With his hands continuing to bring the aircraft closer, Guillermo made a couple of errant swings with his hands to shoo away the bee, but he kept walking backwards as well as giving the forward signal for the aircraft.
The single bee attracted two more, and now his frantic swings were becoming more evident and pronounced. The marshal put his light wands together to stop the aircraft. After he held it for two seconds, he continued to battle the bees until the aircraft came to a full stop.
The pilot stopped the aircraft in its tracks, and the marshal ran to get away from the bees.
“Ground, this is Aero National 227 pulling into Gate Alpha two-fiver. Seems our aircraft marshaller is under attack from some bees or bugs. Request another marshaller be dispatched so we can park and get these nice folks to their destinations.”
“Aero National, 227, copy. Will dispatch new marshaller. Thanks for doing the right thing.”
“To be quite honest, Tower, if I were to take his direction now, we’d be at other side of the airport in Terminal E in a few minutes, and my passengers wouldn’t like the route we took to get there.”
Tower laughed and said, “Roger that, 227. New aircraft marshaller is on the way to Gate Alpha two-fiver. Should be there in less than 10 minutes. Sorry for the inconvenience.”
The Aircraft Marshaller
How fortunate for the passengers that they had a seasoned pilot at the controls. I wondered how those frantic motions by the marshaller were being interpreted! Good "bee" story, David.
More Bees! 😫