Beekeepers May Seek Damages Over Airline Error

A million bees died en route from Finland to Iceland, and the director of the Icelandic Beekeepers Association told reporters he may seek damages.

RÚV reports that 2 million bees arrived in east Iceland yesterday morning from the Åland Islands, having been temporarily delayed at the airport in Helsinki. Unfortunately, half of them arrived dead.

Ólafur Örn Pétursson, who was there to pick up the arriving bees, described the condition of the survivors for reporters.

“They were in pretty weak condition,” he said. “They were alive, but we have to give it time to see whether they’ll bounce back or not. We don’t know if they’re in some kind of shock that they’ll recover from or not. We will try our best, and hope that the queen does well to produce eggs this summer.”

As reported, a booking mistake for the procured bees led to them being forgotten in storage in Finland. While the matter was soon remedied, Egill Rafn Sigurgeirsson – the director of the Icelandic Beekeepers Association – told reporters that he intends to look into what kind of damages they are owed, but believes the delayed flight and subsequent bee death set the beekeepers back at least 3 million ISK.

“I have to write a report and file it with DHL, which conducted the flight,” he told reporters. “Even though it wasn’t their mistake, as I understand [the bees] were simply forgotten in storage at Finnair.”