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High drama: Qantas python's flying circus

Eamonn Duff - Sun-Herald senior investigative writer
Date January 11, 2013

[ embedded video ] Snake clings to wing of Qantas flight
Enduring minus 12 degree temperatures and winds of up to 400km/hr
a snake clings to the wing of a Qantas plane on the way from
Cairns to Papua New Guinea. Vision: Robert Weber.

QANTAS had its own dramatic ''snakes on a plane'' episode when a three-metre python joined passengers on an early morning flight to Papua New Guinea.

But unlike Samuel L. Jackson's 2006 fictional Hollywood blockbuster in which a nest of vipers causes death and destruction on a jet, this reptile was concerned only with self-preservation.

QF191 was about 20 minutes into its 6.15am flight from Cairns to Port Moresby on Thursday when a woman pointed outside the plane and told cabin crew: ''There's a snake on the wing … There's its head and if you look closely you can see a fraction of its body.''
Passengers take a picture of the snake.


Passengers take a picture of the snake. Photo: Robert Weber

While some passengers scoffed in disbelief, she was correct.

Rick Shine, a snake expert at the University of Sydney, said the specimen was a ''very uncomfortable'' scrub python, the longest snake in Australia.

''There's no way it could be anything else,'' he said. ''They're common in north Queensland. They're ambush predators and if there are rodents anywhere nearby, they'll most likely be in the vicinity. They often find their way into tight ceiling spaces in houses, although I've never heard of one on a plane until now.''
The snake as seen on the wing of the Qantas flight from Cairns to Port Moresby.


The snake as seen on the wing of the Qantas flight from
Cairns to Port Moresby. Photo: Robert Weber

One passenger, Robert Weber, a website designer in Cairns, said: ''The people at the front were oblivious to what was going on but the passengers at the back were all totally focused on the snake and how it might have got onto the aircraft.

''There was no panic. At no time did anyone stop to consider that there might be others on board.''

Mr Weber said initially the snake was tucked away ''quite neatly'' but then the wind caught the last 30 centimetres of its tail, ''pulling him straight out''.

He said that from that moment, everyone watched on as the trip became an ultimately futile ''life and death struggle for the snake''.

''I felt quite sad for it, really. For the remainder of the flight, he was trying to pull himself back into the plane, even though he was fighting against 400km/h winds. The cabin crew told us that at cruising altitude, it was minus 12 degrees outside - but not even that was able to finish him.''

only a bit more .. warning .. http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-incidents/high-drama-qantas-pythons-flying-circus-20130110-2ciu0.html

sad stories .. then there was your 300 cat lady .. lol .. she is a beauty .. good balance ..