A Virgin Australia domestic flight was delayed for close to two hours on Tuesday after a snake was found inside the cargo hold of the plane at Melbourne Airport.
Travelers were about to board Flight VA337 to Brisbane when airport workers noticed the snake. Snake catcher Mark Pelley was summoned to deal with the unexpected visitor, which turned out to be a 60-centimeter green tree snake, non-venomous but misidentified at first as being hazardous because of the inadequate lighting in the hold.
It wasn’t until after I caught it that I found out it wasn’t venomous,” explained Pelley. “Until then, it was very menacing-looking.”
Pelley discovered the snake half-hidden behind a panel. Knowing the danger that it might slither deeper into the plane, he alerted staff that the plane may have to be evacuated if the reptile eluded sight.
I explained to them that if I got it wrong, we’d be disassembling a Boeing 737 searching for it,” he said. “Fortunately, I got it on the first attempt.”
The holdup was also extended by security procedures, which kept Pelley waiting before he could enter the plane. A representative for the airline confirmed that the incident added about two hours to the flight’s delay.
Pelley believes the local Brisbane native snake could have slipped onto the plane through a passenger’s bag during the previous sector from Brisbane to Melbourne.
On grounds of quarantine, the snake cannot be returned to the wild. Because it is a protected species, it has been taken over by a Melbourne veterinarian, who will organize its rehoming with a licensed snake keeper.
Australia has a large number of the planet’s most dangerous snakes, and such accidents make them serious issues for airlines and airports.