South African snake on a plane: A deadly cobra in the cockpit is forced to make an emergency landing

  • By Cecilia Macaulay
  • BBC News

image source, Rudolf Erasmus

photo caption,

The life of pilot Rudolf Erasmus was in potential danger as the deadly snake slithering on his back in the air

It felt like just another flight for South African pilot Rudolph Erasmus, until he noticed an extra passenger on his plane 11,000 feet in the air.

However, it was not a human being, but a cobra slithering under his seat.

“To be really honest, it’s as if my brain didn’t register what was going on,” he told the BBC.

“It was a moment […] Awe,” he said, adding that he initially thought the cold feeling on his back was his water bottle.

“I had this wonderful sensation, kind of, crawling up my shirt,” he said, thinking that maybe he didn’t close the bottle properly and maybe the water was dripping all over his shirt.

“When I turned left and looked down I saw a cobra […] His head recedes back under the seat.”

Then he made an emergency landing on his flight from Bloemfontein to Pretoria. The plane was carrying four more in addition to the snake.

A bite from a cobra cobra is lethal and can kill someone in just 30 minutes, so not wanting to cause panic, Erasmus says he thought carefully before quietly telling those on board that there was one more unwanted passenger.

He was also “very afraid that the serpent had gone all the way back and cause a mass panic”.

image source, Getty Images

photo caption,

A snake bite usually requires an overnight stay in the hospital as well as medication to combat the venom

How did the passengers react? Mr. Erasmus described a moment of utter silence: “You could hear the drop of a needle and I think everyone froze for a moment or two.”

Pilots are trained for a lot of scenarios, but certainly not for dealing with snakes in the cockpit, he said, telling the BBC that panicking would have made the situation worse.

The plane made an emergency landing in Wellcome.

However, the snake’s presence, though shocking, was not a complete surprise. Two people who work at the Worcester Flying Club, where the plane first took off, said they had earlier seen a reptile taking shelter under the plane. They tried to “take it over”, but to no avail.

Mr Erasmus said he tried to find the snake before boarding the plane with his passengers, but “unfortunately it wasn’t there, so we all safely assumed it must have crawled all night or earlier that morning, which was Monday.” .

The gliding passenger is still missing, having not been found by the engineers who then stripped the aircraft.

Mr Erasmus has been hailed as a hero, with South Africa’s Commissioner for Civil Aviation, Bobby Khosa, praising his “fantastic aircraft that really saved all lives on board,” according to News24.

But the humble pilot says he doesn’t feel special for what he’s done: “I think this blows it up a bit if I can be direct,” he said. “My passengers also remained calm.”

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