Snake on a Plane! South African Pilot Finds Cobra Under Seat

When a pilot on a domestic flight from Worcester to Nelspruit in South Africa finds a venomous snake under his seat, he immediately makes an emergency landing. The pilot, who had four passengers on board, told Times Live he found the cobra while “doing a check” after “something cold” suddenly felt like it was slipping across his lower back.
A Cape cobra bite is life-threatening and can result in death within 30 minutes to four hours, according to Times Live. The venom is poisonous and can also cause nausea, vomiting, breathing difficulty, and even paralysis.
The incident was not the first time a reptile has hitched a ride on a commercial jet. In 2016, a large snake slithered through an Aeromexico flight to Mexico City.Similarly, in 2013, a python managed to sneak onto an Australian Airlines flight traveling from Australia to Papua New Guinea.
Hollywood has its share of snake-on-a-plane stories too, such as ‘Snakes on a Plane’ (2006). In that film, international gangster Eddie Kim (Nathan Phillips) tries to kill a witness to his murder by unleashing dozens of venomous snakes on a plane.
As he’s put under FBI protection, Sean Jones (Nathan Phillips) is forced to fly from Hawaii to California to testify against Kim in a trial for the murder of an alleged mobster. But just as the FBI puts him under the wing of agent Neville Flynn (Samuel L. Jackson), the crate opens and the snakes emerge, beginning to kill passengers.