(Newser)
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A real-life Snakes on a Plane played out in Australia on Tuesday, when pilot Braden Blennerhassett was forced to make an emergency landing after a snake slithered out of his dashboard 20 minutes after he took off from Darwin Airport. "I turned [the plane] around and got it headed back towards Darwin there and said 'Look, you're not going to believe this. I've got snakes on a plane,'" he tells the Australian Broadcasting Corp. If you don't already have the willies, consider this added detail from the AP: As Blennerhassett was landing, the snake actually slithered across his leg.
Fortunately, there were no passengers on board at the time. Air Frontier staffers were wary of Blennerhassett's story at first, but began to believe him when he requested to be met by a snake handler upon landing, he says. Adds the airline's director, "I have heard of crocodiles being loose in planes but not snakes." Creepily enough, the snake was not found upon landing (authorities tried a mouse-baited trap), but the airline says the plane will not be used again "until we're comfortable the snake is not onboard anymore." A wildlife ranger tells the AP that it may have been a golden tree snake, which isn't venomous (pro) but can grow to up to 5 feet in length (con!). Click for another story this week of an 80-year-old woman who had to make an emergency landing.
