A Flybe aircraft was forced to turn back after a bee became stuck in one of its instruments.
Passengers on the flight from Southampton to Dublin faced a two-hour delay after the journey was abandoned shortly after take-off on Saturday.
The carrier told the BBC that engineers found the bee lodged in an outside instrument.
A “suspected technical issue” led the pilot to return to Southampton airport, where the plane landed “without incident,” a spokeswoman added.
The spokeswoman said: “Flybe engineers discovered that a bee that had become lodged in an item of instrumentation on the outside of the aircraft.”
The airline apologised for any inconvenience.