Reuters: "The three meter-long (9.1 foot) non-poisonous Amethystine python appeared about an hour into the Qantas flight between Cairns in northern Queensland and the Papua New Guinean capital of Port Moresby on Thursday."

  • nixiebunny

    Snake on a plane, but fortunately not in a plane.

    I wonder how they translated 3 meters to 9.1 feet. 3.0 meters is 9.8 feet. Or did they measure the snake? 

    • http://boingboing.net/ Rob Beschizza

      Australian meters, clearly. Metres. Feetres.

      • Boundegar

        Actually, it is a little-known fact that the meter is based on the circumference of the Earth, which is different at different latitudes.  Australian meters are a little smaller than equatorial meters.  In fact, at the poles, the meter shrinks to zero size, which makes motion impossible, and this is why the poles are fixed while the rest of the Earth rotates.

        • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=723465194 Paul ✯ Madley

          You, and the 11 people who like this, should not be trusted with sharp objects or motor vehicles…. unless you’re joking…

          • ocker3

            We Australians never joke, we’re Always deadly serious! In fact, we don’t even have a stand-up comedy industry

  • Aeron

    Is this a really old article or is this really the second airborne snake attack I’ve personally heard about??

  • http://www.youtube.com/user/Freethinkersanon Christopher

    This story is at least as old as Chaucer, who wrote a review of the work “Serpentes on a Shippe!”

    It can be found here (warning-contains spoylerz):
    http://houseoffame.blogspot.com/2006/08/serpentes-on-shippe-spoylerez.html

  • http://2012diaries.blogspot.com/ tristan eldritch

    I’m waiting for the headline that reads “Laconic Vest-Clad Detective Actually in Hostage Skyscraper……. Leader of Terrorist Gang Believed to be member of Royal Shakespeare Company”.

  • planettom

    They put snakes on the wing to keep the gremlins off.

  • http://twitter.com/kpkpkp Kevin Pierce

    WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • ImmutableMichael

    “Snakes on a Plane” – does anybody know what the movie’s about?

    • Jake Rennie

      It’s about a surfer/dirtbike racer who witnesses a brutal murder and is escorted to Los Angeles to give his testimony by two FBI agents. Might also be some other stuff going on too.

      • ImmutableMichael

        Thanks Jake – maybe I can see it as a double with that great “gold-heist-gone-wrong” movie of redemption and revenge, “Cowboys and Aliens”.

  • showme

    Enough is enough! I have had it with these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane!

  • http://glitch.tl/ Michael Smith

    Animal invasions are a big deal in this part of the world so the airline would have made sure that the snake died, regardless. A good example is feral foxes in Tasmania. These animals are a pest all over the mainland  and recently there have been sightings around Devonport where there is a ferry terminal. Did one animal get across? Or a pregnant female?

    • L_Mariachi

      They couldn’t ship it back where it belongs?

      • http://glitch.tl/ Michael Smith

        You mean not kill the snake? It would be a matter for PNG authorities and they are not known for sentimentality. I suppose they might ship it back but a lot of illegally imported animals are euthanased.

        • apoxia

           I saw the video of the snake on the outside of the plane. Let’s just say it flailed violently in the wind, blood was spattered on the aircraft, and it was limp when the plane landed. No snake survival.

  • Beanolini

    Snakes on Guam try to get on planes so often that detector dogs are used daily to prevent them.

  • http://tumblr.breadteam.com breadteam

    Snakes are venomous or non-venomous, not poisonous or non-poisonous. 

    • Antinous / Moderator

      Not if you dip them in polonium before releasing them on the plane.

      • http://tumblr.breadteam.com breadteam

        Then they would be Polonius

        “To thine own self be true”