Snake on a Plane: Unwanted passenger slithers into Florida to New Jersey flight
Life just imitated art in the United States. A snake on a plane caused jitters during a flight from Florida to New Jersey, as if it were a scene from the movie Snakes on a Plane.
The Port of Authority of New York and New Jersey told Reuters that the snake turned up on United Airlines Flight 2038 from the city of Tampa, shortly after landing at the Newark Liberty International Airport on Monday afternoon, Oct. 17 (Oct. 18 Manila time).
Business-class passengers found the snake underfoot, making them shriek and pull their feet up as their ride taxied from the runway to the gate, local television News 12 New Jersey reported.
But unlike the 2006 cult classic, the unexpected passenger—singular—is the rather harmless garter snake commonly found in gardens, not a venomous reptile released by criminals in a bid to kill a murder trial witness.
Passengers alerted United Airlines crew members, who then "called the appropriate authorities to take care of the situation."
Animal control officers and police officers who were waiting at the airport gate immediately removed the snake and released it into the wild, The Port of Authority of New York and New Jersey said.
Nobody was injured and airport operations weren't affected, the agency added.
It's unclear how the snake got on the plane.
The incident wasn't the first Snakes on a Plane kind of situation. Reuters noted that in 2016, a large snake was found slithering through the passenger cabin of a local flight in Mexico.
In 2013, meanwhile, passengers spotted by python clinging to the airplane wing during a flight from Australia to Papua New Guinea.