Scorpion stings airline passenger

MONTPELIER, Vt. – A scorpion stung David Sullivan on the back of his right leg, just below the knee, then continued up that leg and down the other, he believes, before getting him again in the shin.

It wasn’t what he was expecting on a flight from Chicago to Vermont.

Sullivan, a 46-year-old builder from Stowe, was aboard the United Airlines flight on the second leg of his Jan. 3 trip home from San Francisco. He awoke from a nap shortly before landing and noticed something strange.

“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.”

The second sting came after the plane had landed and the Sullivans were waiting for their bags. Sullivan rolled up his cuff to investigate, and the scorpion fell out. Another passenger stepped on the two-inch arachnid.

Its origins were unknown.