Qantas Snake Disrupts Flight In Australia

An 8-inch long Mandarin rat snake was found hanging out on an Australian flight headed for Japan last night, stranding 370 passengers for the evening while crew members investigated the plane and prep...
Qantas Snake Disrupts Flight In Australia
Written by Amanda Crum
  • An 8-inch long Mandarin rat snake was found hanging out on an Australian flight headed for Japan last night, stranding 370 passengers for the evening while crew members investigated the plane and prepared it for fumigation.

    “The snake was taken to quarantine to determine where it came from,” an airline spokesperson said.

    The snake–which officials say is not dangerous to humans–is native to Asia and authorities say they aren’t sure how it came to be on the plane; however, this isn’t the first time a snake has shown up on a Qantas flight. In January of this year, a python was discovered on the wing of a plane headed from Cairns, Australia to Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea.

    The displaced passengers were sent to nearby hotels and boarded a flight the next morning to Tokyo. As for the snake, he didn’t fare as well and had to be put down “as exotic reptiles of this kind can harbor pests and diseases not present in Australia,” according to the Agriculture Department.

    Image: Wikimedia Commons

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