Stung on a Plane

Loren Coleman passed along two recent news articles, two separate events, where a passenger on a plane was stung by a scorpion.

First, there was a Costa Rica to Vancouver flight, with a stopover in Miami:

"After hiding undetected in the man's carry-on bag, the scorpion decided to slip out during the flight, crawling up his oblivious victim's pant leg. He wasn't oblivious for long, however. He reached a unique level of awareness when the poisonous stinger painfully sunk into his skin and a quiet flight took on an ominous, creepy tone.
"The man did manage to kill the scorpion after it bit him. But the fear of more carnage wasn't totally assuaged.
"The incident caused an hour-long delay at Pearson International Airport as officials looked to see if any others had gotten loose.
"After the plane landed the traveller was treated at Etobicoke General and released.
"Animal control officers identified the scorpion as a non-lethal species."

I don't know what species they identified it as, but the photo (above) looks similar to some Costa Rican Centruroides species that I've kept in the past. There's a smaller species in Florida, but I'm guessing this was just a tropical scorpion that hitched a ride accidentally.

The second report comes from a different location:

"But this latest incident happened on a United Airlines plane heading from Chicago to Vermont.
David Sullivan, a 46-year-old builder, was coming home from a trip to visit family in San Francisco and had just awakened from a nap on the flight when he noticed an odd sensation in his leg above the knee.
"'My right leg felt like it was asleep, but that was isolated to one spot, and it felt like it was being jabbed with a sharp piece of plastic or something,' he recalls.
"But unlike the Canadian victim, this passenger was hit by the same arachnid twice.
"He felt another twinge after he disembarked and was waiting for his luggage to appear. Finally deciding there was something wrong, Sullivan rolled up his pant leg and the creepy crawler fell out and began scuttling across the terminal floor." ...
"Airline officials believe the creature came onboard during a stop in Texas and have promised to investigate."

Doesn't sound like anyone attempted to identify the species, but there are several harmless species in the southwest. (OK - harmless in that you're unlikely to have serious medical issues unless you're allergic...) For some odd reason, the newscast on this last episode showed a large African emperor scorpion, which has little resemblance to the usually small brown scorpions of Texas. Note also, the news reports' inability to distinguish between a bite and sting. A scorpion bite, of any species, isn't going to be threatening. They don't have poisonous saliva. It's the venom in the sting that causes problems, and it is their sting that they use for defensive and predatory purposes.
Nothing really strange about these incidents, just mark it up as a coincidence that the two events occurred (and were publicized) so close together. (I'm guessing that anything strange in regard to airlines will get more publicity than usual now.) I've seen reports on bites and stings from various critters on airplanes over the years; it's not a sign of the apocalypse or anything.