An Australian domestic flight was grounded for two hours on Tuesday after a snake was discovered stowed away in the aircraft’s cargo hold.
Passengers were boarding Virgin Australia Flight VA337 at Melbourne Airport, bound for Brisbane, when the reptile was found. Snake catcher Mark Pelley was called to the scene to remove the unexpected passenger.
The snake was identified as a harmless 60-centimeter (2-foot) green tree snake. However, Mr Pelley stated that he initially believed it could be venomous due to the darkened conditions of the hold when he approached it. The incident led to a significant delay for travellers before the flight was eventually cleared for departure.
“It wasn’t until after I caught the snake that I realized that it wasn’t venomous. Until that point, it looked very dangerous to me,” Pelley said.
Most of the world’s most venomous snakes are native to Australia.
When Pelley entered the cargo hold, the snake was half hidden behind a panel and could have disappeared deeper into the plane.
Pelley said he told an aircraft engineer and airline staff that they would have to evacuate the aircraft if the snake disappeared inside the plane.
“I said to them if I don’t get this in one shot, it’s going to sneak through the panels and you’re going to have to evacuate the plane because at that stage I did not know what kind of snake it was,” Pelley said.
“But thankfully, I got it on the first try and captured it,” Pelley added. “If I didn’t get it that first time, the engineers and I would be pulling apart a (Boeing) 737 looking for a snake still right now.”
Pelley said he had taken 30 minutes to drive to the airport and was then delayed by security before he could reach the airliner.
An airline official said the flight was delayed around two hours.
Because the snake is native to the Brisbane region, Pelley suspects it came aboard inside a passenger’s luggage and escaped during the two-hour flight from Brisbane to Melbourne.
For quarantine reasons, the snake can’t be returned to the wild.
The snake, which is a protected species, has been given to a Melbourne veterinarian to find a home with a licensed snake keeper.
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