“Sure enough, out of the corner of my eye, I see a little bit of movement
there. Lo and behold, in between the instrument panel and the dashboard, a
stow away came on board and it took me a while to register that it was
actually a snake. I turned [the plane] around and got it headed back towards
Darwin there and said ‘look, you’re not going to believe this. I’ve got
snakes on a plane.'”
Though it is believed to be the first time a snake has appeared in a plane
during a flight in Australia, other wildlife to have emerged include a young
chicken and an escaped juvenile crocodile which appeared under a pilot’s
rudder pedal.
Air Frontier director Geoffrey Hunt said the pilot had responded coolly but
the reptile was never found.
“We have got another chap here who is an aircraft engineer and a snake handler
and he had a look and he couldn’t find it,” Mr Hunt said.
The snake is believed to be a golden tree snake, a non-venomous species that
can grow up to 5 feet.