‘Unprecedented’: Giant vulture delays takeoff after taking plane hostage

Was it looking for carrion luggage?

A Ryanair flight out of Greece was delayed after an unexpected passenger — a giant flesh-eating vulture — landed on the aircraft and refused to budge.

The plane had reportedly been prepping to depart Crete on August 16, when the super-sized scavenger alighted on the tail fin, the Greek Reporter reported.

The Post reached out to Ryanair for comment.

Despite attempts by the pilots to scare it off by activating the tail flaps, the bird of prey remained still, forcing them to postpone the departure, The Star reported.

In other words, they had to wait for it to take off so they could.

Firefighters subsequently responded to the scene, but the buzzard declined to move even after getting prodded by brigade members equipped with a ladder.

Responding firefighter Antonis Petrakis labeled the ordeal “unprecedented” and recalled how the bird remained “completely calm” despite its unusual predicament.

“From what I saw, it had no injury or other problems,” recounted the crew member, who speculated that the creature “was probably still young and was likely just taking its first flights.”

Apparently even giant birds of prey can have a fear of flying.

Eventually the carcass-scrounging squatter decided to soar from the wing to the runway on its own accord, whereupon the fire brigade removed it, thereby clearing the way for takeoff.

“I immediately ran over with a colleague, we caught it and put a fire brigade jacket over its head so it couldn’t see anything and would calm down. And that worked,” recalled Petrakis.

A Facebook post shared by a local page shows pictures of the unusual saga, from the moment the raptor landed on the wing to Petrakis holding the coat-swaddled critter at the station post-rescue.

It’s a good thing they finally managed to deplane this uncooperative passenger as, along with getting winged, the critter could’ve posed a serious aviation safety risk otherwise, according to local media.

Common through Europe, griffon vultures are imposing-looking birds that can boast a wingspan of up to 9 feet across.

Crete is home to one of the world’s largest populations of these carrion-eaters, which help maintain the island’s ecosystem by cleaning livestock carcasses, earning them the moniker “nature’s sanitarians.”

This isn’t the first time one of these flying custodians has impeded a flight.

In 2024, a Brazilian pilot was literally flipped the bird after a vulture crashed through his cockpit window and dangled lifelessly in front of him for the remainder of the flight.

“It’s a miracle the pilot managed to land with that right in his face,” said one of the passengers.