A snake has been discovered on an AirAsia flight from Bangkok to Phuket, sparking concern among passengers.
The Blanford snake was spotted above the overhead compartments of the AirAsia Airbus A320 aircraft on January 13 as the plane prepared to land at Phuket airport.
After it was discovered, some passengers left their seats while others filmed the reptile. One TikTok video of the incident has been viewed more than 3.4 million times since it was posted.
The footage shows a cabin crew member trying to catch the snake in an empty water bottle, after which it is pushed into a plastic bag.
Local media reported that the snake was safely stowed until landing, and Phuket International Airport staff boarded the flight to search all luggage for other snakes. None were found.
Kristina Galvydyte, who worked as a flight attendant for a leading British airline, said: “Given that the snake was so small and was found in the overhead lockers, the only logical explanation would be that it ended up in a passenger’s luggage . suitcase before you go on a trip and therefore end up on the plane.
“Snakes are very common in Thailand, so it is not an uncommon animal to hide in people’s homes. However, the snake clearly passed through airport security in someone’s luggage without any problems, so that certainly needs further investigation as to how this could have happened.”
Is the snake dangerous? Mark O’Shea, professor of herpetology at the University of Wolverhampton, said: “Blanford’s bridal snake would fit, Lycodon davisoniibut I can’t see it clearly enough to confirm the identification.
“These are small harmless snakes. I caught a rare bride snake in Sri Lanka a few years ago, only the third ever in the country. The crew acted very professionally by putting the hose in a plastic bottle, which is what I would have done if I had been there.
“You have to be careful with it Lycodonsome are mimics of highly poisonous kraits (Bungarus) and that was the mistake American herpetologist Joe Slowinskii made in September 2021 and suffered a fatal snake bite. So while you may think it’s a Lycodon (wolf snake, bridal snake) you handle it carefully until you find the loreal shell to confirm that it is not Bungarus,” he said.
The incident has drawn comparisons to the 2006 cult film starring Samuel L Jackson. Snakes in an airplane. However, it is not an isolated incident. Since the film’s release, more than a dozen incidents involving snakes have occurred on commercial, cargo and private planes, from deadly cobras in the cockpit to pets being illegally smuggled on board.
Stowaways
In 2012, an 18-inch reptile (a juvenile Central American smooth-shelled racer) was spotted on a plane at Glasgow Airport, arriving from Cancun, Mexico.
The then senior inspector of the Scottish SPCA, Billy Linton, was called in to assess the snake and remove it from the aircraft. He was relatively unperturbed by the incident: “We have rescued several exotic creatures from international flights, including scorpions, spiders, turtles and even giant land snails, so this is not as unusual as many people might think,” he said.
In another case in Scotland, this time in 2019, Moira Boxall discovered a spotted python curled up in a shoe in her suitcase after returning from Queensland, Australia, to Glasgow – a 40-hour flight with two transfers.
“I really thought it was a toy and that my family was playing a joke on me. But then he started moving, I saw his head and his fangs. “I got the biggest shock of my life,” she said.
Escaped cargo
In some cases, snakes have escaped from their containers in the cargo hold of a flight. In 2009, four baby pythons disappeared from a container containing twelve Stimson pythons in Australia during a two-and-a-half-hour Qantas flight from Alice Springs to Melbourne. When ground crews were unable to locate the hoses after landing in Melbourne, the aircraft was temporarily taken out of service and fumigated.
Eight years later, an Emirates flight from Muscat, Oman, to Dubai was canceled when a snake was spotted in the cargo hold before passengers boarded. The flight was canceled as cleaning and engineering teams were rushed on board to track down the snake.
Smugglers
Sometimes passengers try to illegally smuggle pet snakes on board. In 2012, an Egypt Air flight from Cairo to Kuwait was forced to make an emergency landing in the resort of Al Ghardaqa, Egypt, when a 48-year-old Jordanian was bitten by the snake he had smuggled on board. The man, who owns a reptile shop in Kuwait, hid the cobra in his carry-on luggage, but it escaped through the passenger aisle. The plane completed its flight to Kuwait after local authorities seized the snake.
In another incident, in 2017, a passenger aboard a Ravn Alaska commuter flight from the remote village of Aniak to Anchorage took on board a large snake without permission. He had disembarked, unaware that the snake had escaped from his bag, and on the next flight passengers saw the large snake sleeping in the corner of the plane.
Sometimes snakes end up on planes as part of the illegal international wildlife trade. In 2008, a ton of live snakes were discovered hidden in 60 ice boxes labeled “fresh fish” during a Thai Air flight from Bangkok to Hanoi airport. The cabin crew said there were too many to count.
In the cockpit
Worryingly, snakes are not limited to terrifying passengers in the cabin. Last year, pilot Rudolph Erasmus discovered a Cape cobra under his seat while flying a light aircraft from Bloemfontein to Pretoria, South Africa.
“Honestly, it’s like my brain isn’t registering what’s going on,” he told the BBC. “I felt a cool feeling crawling up my shirt,” he said. Erasmus said he thought he had not closed his water bottle properly and water flowed down his shirt.
“When I turned to the left and looked down, I saw the cobra […] pulling his head back under the seat.”
Cape cobras are deadly and their bite can kill a human in just 30 minutes. Erasmus successfully made an emergency landing and all five passengers disembarked unharmed.
In 2012, a pilot in Australia’s Northern Territory was forced to make a 180-degree turn after he saw a snake emerge from behind the dashboard and crawl down his leg. The pilot, Braden Blennerhassett, was flying to a rural town to drop off cargo when he spotted the snake — unassisted, covering the transmitter button used to communicate with air traffic control. He eventually got through and asked for a snake handler to be ready at the landing.
“I’ve seen it once in a movie, but never on an airplane,” he told ABC television.