Royal Air Maroc Denies Cockroach Infestation on Casablanca-Manchester Flight

While the RAM flight AT818 from Casablanca airport landed on time at 5:20 pm on Thursday, August 15, with more than 100 British vacationers on board, at 7 pm some passengers upon arrival were still waiting for their luggage due to the invasion of cockroaches in a hold of the Boeing 737 of the Moroccan airline, reported The Independent, specifying that some of the 100 passengers’ luggage sent to Manchester was returned to Morocco.

An informed source denies the presence of cockroaches on the flight, reports Médias24. However, she admits that there was an incident. "The incident recorded on flight AT818 from Casablanca to Manchester concerns some units of luggage transported in the hold of the plane that contained food products belonging to passengers from West African (English-speaking) countries," explains the source. She will specify: "during the passengers’ journey, the products were stored for several hours in the hold. Upon arrival in Manchester, these products underwent accelerated decomposition due to the high heat of this August month and the materials used for the packaging of these products (cellophane); which favored the appearance of maggots."

"Instead of treating the few affected pieces as is done at most major airports, the airport authorities in Manchester decided not to allow the unloading of all the luggage," the same source continued. Thus, 104 bags out of 122 were sent to Manchester on Sunday and Tuesday, while the other 18 were destroyed.