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The foul smell of durian fruit temporarily grounded a plane in Indonesia and almost led passengers to fight the crew

Nov 8, 2018, 22:14 IST

Durian fruit on marketbarock/shutterstock

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  • A group of passengers on a Sriwijaya Air flight almost came to blows with the crew over the foul and smelly presence of durian fruit, which temporarily grounded the plane, according to multiple reports.
  • CNN reports that a Sriwijaya Air flight, headed from Bengkulu, a province in Sumatra, to Jakarta, Indonesia had to be grounded after passengers refused to board the plane that was carrying two tons of durian fruit.
  • According to USA Today, the airline eventually heeded the passengers' request and removed the fruit from the plane, which departed an hour later than scheduled.
  • Durian fruit is a notoriously foul-smelling fruit, that earlier this year forced an Australian University to evacuate because it smelled like gasoline.

A group of passengers on a Sriwijaya Air flight almost got in a fight with the crew over the foul and smelly presence of durian fruit, which temporarily grounded the plane, according to multiple reports.

CNN reports that a Sriwijaya Air flight, headed from Bengkulu, a province in Southwest Sumatra, to Jakarta, Indonesia had to be grounded after passengers refused to board the plane that was carrying two tons of durian fruit.

Durian fruit is a notoriously foul-smelling fruit that earlier this year forced an Australian University to evacuate because it smelled like gasoline.

Not surprisingly, passengers about to take their seats on the Sriwijaya Air flight could not handle its presence in the cargo section of the plane and refused to board.

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Read More: Ryanair fires 6 crew members after a staged photo went viral of them sleeping on the airport floor

CNN reports the airline tried to placate passengers by placing coffee powder and pandan leaves over the boxes containing the fruit to absorb the smell, and told passengers the smell would go away once the plane was airborne.

But passengers refused to board, chanting and yelling in unison, with the BBC.com reporting some "almost came to blows with crew members."

According to USA Today, the airline eventually heeded the passengers' request and removed the fruit from the plane, which departed an hour later than scheduled.

One can only imagine how bad the smell of Durian fruit is to create this scene between an airline and its passengers.

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The late Anthony Bourdain once said, "Your breath will smell as if you'd been French-kissing your dead grandmother."

According to Kristen Lee, a writer for Gawker Media, the fruit has a pungent odor: "I honestly cannot remember the taste very much, because the smell stabbed into my nostrils like a rancid meat poker, blinding me against all my other senses. I also cannot describe that smell to you now because I have blocked it from my mind, but I can tell you that it was Bad."

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