CANBERRA, Australia — An Australian pilot said he was forced to make a harrowing landing reminiscent of a Hollywood thriller after a snake popped out from behind his dashboard and slithered across his leg during a solo cargo flight. Braden Blennerhassett — unsure whether the snake was venomous — said Thursday that his heart raced as he tried to keep his hands still while maneuvering the plane back to the northern city of Darwin. The snake popped its head out from behind the instrument panel… (www.washingtonpost.com) More...
I can remember hunting/catching live rattlesnakes out in Oklahoma, along the Red River, but I don't care about gettting within a half mile of one today; of course we were bullet and bite proof in those days.LOL
Well, Toby, at 18, we were bite proof and bulletproof.LOL. Just like teenagers today.LOL You did read the rest of the post that I have no hankering today. Much older & wiser.LOL
It says "According to EcologyAsia.com, golden tree snakes, or Chrysopelea ornata, are non-venemous, can grow up to 5 feet (or 1.5 meters) long and are "able to glide through the air."
I would have 'just thrown it out the window then' ! You want to fly fella.. 'Here ya Go' !
I'm sorry, but I am chuckling the whole way through this article simply because I had one come out of the bottom of my dashboard of my truck while on top of a huge bridge. It was biting my foot as it came down, luckily I was wearing boots. Still scared the hell out of me because I could only see a small part of it and I could not pull over.
all I can say is that they would have found the plane in the ditch at the end or along side the runway..lol....as soon as I would have heard the wheels touch I would have been out.....not much better with spiders...lol
I had a similar experience in our 727 in Africa. We would find droppings in the cockpit in the mornings. I set up a trap and the creature set off the trap but wasn't caught in it. For a while we flew around with our feet up on the footrests in case it was a snake, but it tuned out to be a cat LOL!.
Ralph can you remember an incident with an RJ maybe 18 months ago where it was claimed a baby crocodile escaped from hand luggage and cause a total loss due to unstable loading of frightened pax? That was somewhere in Africa I think?
There's a fair few Aussie snakes that are deadly but usually quite timid, except eastern browns - nasty. Its not easy to identify one from the other. I'd say he'll pay particular attention to his cargo in the future. And take a spare pair of undies.
My instructor described flying as long hours of sheer boredom with short moments of stark terror. This is not the kind of terror I would have ever imagined encountering. But then, he was enroute to Darwin.
Well the thing is Wayne I learned to keep stumm....not good to have 200 people running from one end of the plane to the other..kinda upsets the balance..so if a reptile, any reptile, happens to appear it is all a dream...that or a rubber toy...see..
Snake Pops Out Of Plane Dashboard During Flight (VIDEO)
CANBERRA, Australia -- An airline executive says a pilot on a cargo run found a snake loose in his light plane and turned back to his north Australian base.
In a scene reminiscent of the 2006 movie "Snakes on a Plane," pilot Braden Blennerhassett saw the snake's head pop out from under the dashboard of his twin-engine Beechcraft Baron G58 shortly after takeoff from Darwin airport on Tuesday.
Air Frontier director Geoff Hunt said Thursday that his employee was a "cool character" who told air traffic control: "I'm going to have to return to Darwin. I've got a snake on board the plane."
The reptile quickly slithered away. A snake handler was later unable to find the snake, which might have escaped after the plane landed. The snake's species is not known.
