Snake Appears in Business Class... Frightened Passengers Stuck on the Spot

Snake Found on the Ground as Airplane Lands
Port Authority Police Release Snake Back into the Wild

A snake suddenly appeared inside a US passenger plane in operation. This is unrelated to the article. Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Bora Lee] A sudden appearance of a snake on board during a flight caused a major commotion.

According to several foreign media including the US NBC News on the 18th (local time), a garter snake was found inside a United Airlines passenger plane that departed from Tampa and arrived at Newark International Airport on the 17th.

Around 1:15 PM, just as the plane was landing, screams started coming from the business class seats. A garter snake was leisurely crawling on the floor of the aircraft. The garter snake, which has yellow or reddish horizontal stripes with checkered patterns in between, boasts a body length of about 0.5 to 1.3 meters.

Passengers who saw the garter snake were terrified, lifting their legs while seated to prevent the snake from coming near them. Flight attendants reportedly contacted the port authority to handle the situation.

The port authority police stated that after the plane arrived at the gate, they caught the snake and released it back into the wild. There were no casualties caused by the snake, and after it disappeared, passengers collected their luggage and disembarked.

The port authority searched the cabin but found no other reptiles. Due to this commotion, a flight departing from Fort Myers, Florida was delayed by about 20 minutes.

In late February, a similar incident occurred on AirAsia flight AK574 heading from Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, to Tawau, a city on the eastern coast of Borneo Island, where a snake appeared and caused an emergency landing.

The plane returned and landed in Kuching, about 900 km west of the destination Tawau, and the snake remained inside the overhead light above the cabin seats. At that time, the pilot filmed the snake and posted the video on social media. The video quickly gained popularity and attention. Also, in 2019, a woman discovered a snake in her luggage on a passenger plane traveling from Australia to Scotland.