A huge swarm of honey bees took down an unlikely victim this summer — the U.S. Air Force's most advanced fighter jet.

The F-22 Raptor — the most advanced fighter jet in the world — was temporarily grounded on June 11 after nearly 20,000 bees were found on its exhaust nozzle.


Crew members at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia discovered the bees on the aircraft from the 192nd Air Wing following flight operations.

The jet has $143 million worth of stealth and supersonic capabilities.

"I was shocked like everyone else because it looked like a cloud of thousands of bees," Tech. Sgt. Jeffrey Baskin, 192nd Maintenance Squadron crew chief, said in an Air Force press release.

Because the bees are at risk of extinction, a local beekeeper and retired U.S. Navy veteran was contacted to solve the problem.

Andy Westrich called the hive the largest he had ever seen. He used vacuum hoses to capture them into several large buckets.

They were then safely relocated and are currently at a new home at a local beer production facility.

According to the Air Force, the nearly 20,000 bees weighed nearly eight pounds. They likely came from a larger bee hive somewhere else on the base, said Chief Master Sgt. Gregg Allen, who is both the 192nd Maintenance Group Quality Assurance chief and a beekeeper.

Westrich said the queen likely landed on the jet to rest, and since bees never leave the queen, they likely followed here there and eventually collected on the nozzle.

The F-22 was able to resume flight operations once the bees were safely removed. The F-22 Raptor began combat missions against the Islamic State in September 2014.