The plane was in mid-air when the pilot saw a snake inside the cockpit, sliding in right under his seat. Pilot Rudolph Erasmus was naturally quite shaken at first, but he kept a cool head and made an emergency landing.

According to an AP report, Rudolph Erasmus was flying from Worcester to Nelspruit last Monday. The small plane had only four passengers.

"I have been flying planes for about five years. I have never been in such a difficult situation before," he said. When he saw the snake they were near Welkom airport, and Erasmus immediately contacted the control tower in Johannesburg.

Erasmus said that on Monday morning, as they were doing their pre-flight checks, people at the Worcester airfield told them about the snake. They said they had seen a Cape cobra lying right under the plane's wing on Sunday afternoon. Airport staff tried to catch it, but unfortunately it got away. No one imagined that the snake would get inside the plane and stay there.

"I usually always carry a bottle of water with me. That day, while flying, I suddenly felt something cold near my waist. At first I thought it was the bottle. Then I looked down and saw a snake sliding in under my seat," he said.

"At first I was stunned. I wondered whether to tell the passengers, because they would panic if I did. But I had to tell them. I just said there was a problem: there was a snake inside the plane, under my seat, and we had to land as quickly as possible," he added.

Citing AP.

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