Scorpions on a Plane

There are all kinds of hazards in flying these days:

An Oregon man got a big surprise on a commercial flight from Seattle to Anchorage, Alaska, when he was stung by a scorpion while sitting in his plane seat.

Jeff Ellis of West Linn said he was trying to sleep on a red-eye Alaska Airlines flight June 17 when he felt something in his sleeve and tried to brush it away. He said he felt the crawling again, looked down and saw the culprit.

"I picked my hand up and said, 'Oh, my God. That's a scorpion,'" Ellis told KPTV.

He said he grabbed the scorpion with a napkin and showed it to his girlfriend, but not before it stung him on the elbow.

"At first I didn't believe him," said Suzanne Foster, Ellis' girlfriend. "But then I saw it. He held the napkin up for me to see, and I saw the tail wiggling. I pretty much jumped out of my seat."

Foster called for the flight attendant as Ellis noticed his elbow burning. He said it felt like a bee sting.

Two doctors on board checked out Ellis, while the flight crew called for medics to meet the plane at the Anchorage airport.

The flight originated from Austin, Texas, where Alaska Airlines officials believe the scorpion got on board.

He'll probably get fined by the Interior Department for taking an endangered species across state lines.