A Virgin Australia domestic flight left two hours late because of a snake on board. The incident happened at Melbourne Airport in Australia on Tuesday (30 June, as the report gives it), and was reported in the media on Wednesday.

Flight VA337 was preparing to fly from Melbourne to Brisbane. But as passengers were boarding, professional snake catcher Mark Pele spotted a green snake in the plane's cargo hold. The snake, about 60 cm (2 ft) long, at first looked venomous but was later confirmed to be a harmless green tree snake.

Pele said that because the light was low, it looked venomous at first and appeared frightening, but after catching it he realised it was not dangerous.

He said the snake was partly hidden on one side of the cargo hold and could have got into the cabin at any time. He therefore warned the crew and an engineer that if the snake could not be caught, the whole plane would have to be emptied and parts of it taken apart.

"Luckily I caught it at the first attempt. Otherwise I might still be searching inside a Boeing 737," he said.

A Virgin Australia spokesperson said the flight left about two hours late because of the incident.

Pele believes the snake had come on the previous Brisbane-Melbourne flight in a passenger's bag and then escaped.

Because of quarantine rules, the snake cannot be released back into the wild. The protected species has been handed to a vet in Melbourne, who will arrange for it to be rehomed with a licensed snake keeper.

The report cites AP and UNB.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.