10 years ago
Showing posts with label snake on a plane. Show all posts
Friday, January 11, 2013
Passengers Watched In Amazement As Snake Clings To Plane On Air
It was not quite a “Snakes on a Plane” scenario, but passengers on a Qantas jet watched in amazement as a three-metre python clung to the outside of their aircraft during a flight.
The Australian carrier said the flight from the Queensland city of Cairns to Port Moresby, capital of the Pacific island nation of Papua New Guinea, took off early Thursday morning with the unregistered passenger tucked into its wing.
“The snake was seen by passengers once (the plane) reached cruising altitude,” a Qantas spokesman told AFP.
“It was still on the aircraft when it arrived in Port Moresby but it had died by that stage.”
Once they spotted it on the wing, passengers watched as the reptile engaged in a life-and-death struggle to maintain its grip on the plane despite the winds and chilly altitude temperatures for the two-hour journey. The hard fighting snake made it to the aircraft’s destination, and didn’t fall off on the way, but it was dead already.
Passenger Robert Weber told Fairfax Media Friday that while people at the front of the plane were unaware of the python, those at the back were “all totally focused on the snake and how it might have got onto the aircraft”.
“There was no panic. At no time did anyone stop to consider that there might be others on board,” Weber said.
He added that the snake had been nestled neatly at first, but once the wind caught the end of its tail, it was “pulling him straight out” and from then on it became a hopeless “life-and-death struggle”.
“I felt quite sad for it, really,” he said.
An expert said the snake was probably a scrub python, Australia’s longest snake and one common in northern Queensland.
Qantas said it had never heard of anything similar happening before, adding that there was no way the reptile could have accessed the cabin.
Unlike the 2006 “Snakes on a Plane” movie starring Samuel L. Jackson, this reptile did not affect the flight. [AFP]
Saturday, December 8, 2012
“Snake On A Plane” Causes Emergency Landing In Egypt
90 passengers aboard an Egypt Air flight from Cairo to Kuwait were shocked earlier in the week when a snake reportedly bit a Jordanian man who smuggled the reptile onboard.
According to an Egypt Air official, the 48-year-old passenger, who owns a reptile shop in Kuwait, decided to hide the Egyptian cobra in a carry-on bag. Things went awry when the passenger tried to control the snake after it bit his hand and started slithering under the seats.
The incident forced the pilot to make an emergency landing in the Egyptian resort town of Al Ghardaqa on the Red Sea, according to The Jordan Times.
The Egyptian daily al-Masry al-Youm reported that the man refused medical treatment, claiming his wound was only superficial. The plane resumed its flight to Kuwait after local authorities confiscated the snake.
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