US flights seem to be diverted on a weekly basis for unruly human passengers (the latest being yesterday's American Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C, which made an emergency landing in Kansas City, MO). But on a domestic AirAsia flight across Malaysia last Thursday, the plane was diverted after a different type of traveler caused a ruckus. While en route from Kuala Lumpur to Tawau, someone spotted this little guy slithering its way through the inside of an overhead light fixture:
From NPR:
In a video shared on TikTok by user @edal8808, what appears to be a long snake can be seen slithering through an overhead light fixture. In the caption, the user wrote that the flight, which was headed from the Malaysian capital city of Kuala Lumpur to Tawau, had to instead make an emergency landing in Kuching, according to a translation of the text.
AirAsia did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NPR. However, the airline's chief security officer Liong Tien Ling confirmed the incident in a statement to CNN Türk.
"AirAsia is aware of the incident that occurred on the flight from Kuala Lumpur to Tawau on Thursday. As soon as the captain was notified, the plane was diverted to Kuching to be disinfected," he said. …
"This is a very rare incident which can occur on any aircraft from time to time," he explained.
"The Captain took the appropriate action," said Capt Liong, adding that the safety and wellbeing of their guests and crew was always their top priority.
"At no time was the safety of guests or crew at any risk," he said.
