Snake on plane: Pilot forced to land
An Australian jet pilot was forced to make an emergency landing shortly after takeoff as a snake appeared slithering from plane's dashboard.
Braden Blennerhassett, a pilot with Air Frontier, was flying freight to the remote town of Peppimenarti in the Northern Territory when about 20 minutes after he had left Darwin, he spotted the snake coming out of the dashboard, according to local media reports.
Air Frontier director Geoffrey Hunt said Blennerhassett called air traffic controllers to alert them of the presence of snake.
"He said, we've got a snake on board," Hunt said adding the pilot had trouble communicating with the control tower.
"The snake popped its head out near the transmit button that he needed to press to talk to the tower," he said.
He was asked to return to Darwin and a snake handler was organised to check the plane, 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," Hunt said.
He said the plan now was to try to trap the snake, using a live mouse in a cage as bait. Until the snake is found, the aircraft has been grounded.
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