Snakes on a plane! Python falls from a jet onto an airport runway delaying flights before the reptile is ‘decapitated with a SHOVEL’
- A python hitched a ride on a plane from Brisbane to Queenstown, New Zealand
- The snake stowed away in the undercarriage and fell onto the runway last week
- Initial media reports suggested the snake was decapitated using a shovel
- Biosecurity New Zealand, who collected the snake, has denied these claims
Travellers were left in shock after a python stowed away on a flight from Brisbane to New Zealand.
The snake fell on the Queenstown runway when the flight landed at 3pm on December 15.
The reptile initially went unnoticed until the pilot for the next flight reported a ‘foreign object’ on the runway to the control tower.
A python hitched a ride on a plane from Brisbane to Queenstown, New Zealand (stock)
A Biosecurity NZ officers were called in to retrieve the snake from the runway.
‘Our officers carefully checked the aircraft to confirm it was a single hitchhiker,’ a spokesperson told Stuff.
The spokesperson said it is believed the snake was stowed in the plane’s undercarriage.
Initial media reports suggested the snake was decapitated using a shovel but the spokesperson denied these claims.
‘The snake appeared to still be alive when it was retrieved by our officers. The officers did not decapitate the snake but it was humanely euthanised,’ the spokesperson said.
The plane was only delayed by three minutes so the snake could be caught, the New Zealand Herald reported.
The plan had been sitting in Brisbane for six weeks before it flew to New Zealand, Otago Daily Times reported.
The reptile initially went unnoticed at Queenstown airport until the pilot for the next flight reported a ‘foreign object’ on the runway to the control tower (stock)