Two live locusts found on Turkish Airline flight ‘knocked down’ |21 July 2021

The locusts discovered will be analysed to determine which species they are from

Two locusts found alive onboard a Turkish Airline flight which arrived in Seychelles at midday on Monday were subsequently ‘knocked down’ by chemical sprays.

Officials from the National Bio-Security Agency (NBA) have confirmed that at least two locusts have been found onboard the Turkish Airline flight from Istanbul.

Principal bio-security officer, Randy Stravens, explained that the bio-security officer based at the airport mobilised the NBA’s emergency response system put in place to deal with such situations.

The agency coordinated this exercise in collaboration with the Ministry of Health.

Further investigations were undertaken to intercept and find out whether there were more locusts onboard the airplane. The onsite investigation continued yesterday.

In the meantime, Mr Stravens noted that the locusts discovered thus far will be analysed to determine which species they are from and how they got on the plane to reach our shores and gauge the potential dangers they might pose to our environment.

Mr Stravens stated that a report in this investigation was expected to come out later yesterday.

Elsie Pointe