Passengers' shock as five-foot snake escapes on board plane in US

Discovery: A flight attendant grasps the snake
AP
Hatty Collier22 March 2017

A snake was discovered by a young boy on board a passenger flight in the US.

The yellow, five-foot long snake was left behind in the cabin of the plane by a passenger who was travelling on the previous flight.

The pilot, who was flying the plane to Anchorage, Alaska, informed passengers over the PA system: “Guys we have some loose snake on the plane but we don’t know where it is.”

A young boy who was climbing his seat found the snake, which was not venomous, asleep under a duffle bag.

The youngster was one of seven passengers travelling on the Ravn Alaska commuter flight on Sunday from the Alaska village of Aniak.

The snake was asleep under a duffle bag
AP

His mother Anna McConnaughy said: “He said, `Oh, Mom, look at this. What's that? That's how we figured out there was a snake sleeping in the corner."

She added that that most passengers on board wanted to see the snake.

A pilot came back to help, she said, leading to a short discussion with a flight attendant on how best to capture it.

The flight attendant places the snake into a rubbish bag
AP

"He said, `I'll hold the bag, and you grab the snake,"' McConnaughy said. "Quite a gentleman."

The flight attendant grabbed the snake by the belly and dropped it into a plastic rubbish bag. It spent the rest of the flight in an overhead storage bin, and the plane reached Anchorage on schedule.

A spokesman for the airline, William Walsh, said in a statement that the snake owner had not registered the pet for travel in the cabin of the Ravn Alaska flight.

After arriving in Aniak, he reported that his snake was missing and likely on the return trip to Anchorage.

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