Indiana Jones had only one fear, snakes! In the first movie of the trilogy, he found his fear slithering into his lap while in flight. One South African pilot unknowingly recreated the iconic scene when he found a venomous snake under the pilot’s seat mid-flight.
Pilot Rudolf Erasmus described his ordeal to NPR.
Snake on a plane! South African pilot finds unexpected stowaway under his seat, a Cape cobra https://t.co/EKCYdBJhhs
— Fox News (@FoxNews) April 6, 2023
“I felt this little cold sensation underneath my shirt where my hip is situated — but basically where you’ve got your little love handles,” he said in the interview.
“As I turned to my left and looked down, I could see the head of the snake receding back underneath my seat,” he says. “At which point there was a moment of stunned silence, to be brutally honest.”
The pilot was incredibly surprised to see a highly venomous Cape cobra peak out from under his seat.
Erasmus discovered his deadly stowaway during a private flight he piloted from South Africa’s Western Cape to the northeastern town of Nelspruit.
Snake on a plane 🐍
'Listen the snake is inside the aircraft, it's underneath my seat"
South African pilot, Rudolph Erasmus, noticed a deadly cobra under his seat and made a successful emergency landing.
✍️ https://t.co/IvJXMk4ntx pic.twitter.com/rZDpuX0d1i
— BBC News Africa (@BBCAfrica) April 6, 2023
The cool-headed pilot decided to turn the light aircraft around immediately. He made an emergency landing at the closest airport of Welkom.
“I then informed my passengers of what was going on… but everybody remained calm,” he recounted.
A bite from a Cape cobra can kill a human in as little as an hour. Erasmus’s priority was about keeping his passengers safe.
“I was more afraid of what the snake might do. Luckily it didn’t strike anyone, otherwise, that would have changed or complicated the whole situation,” he explained.
Snake on a plane: South African pilot lands plane safely after a venomous cobra appears in the cockpit
https://t.co/W4LsEbknvC— OpIndia.com (@OpIndia_com) April 6, 2023
Of course, as the incident was made known comparisons to the cult 2006 film Snakes on a Plane circulated quickly. In the movie, an FBI agent, played by Samuel L. Jackson, displays his colorful use of the “F-word” when he discovers the plane he’s on is full of venomous snakes.
Erasmus says Jackson’s colorful language played out inside his own head as he flew with a snake of his own. “That’s how I felt at some point,” he says, laughing.
Erasmus has been praised by South African civil aviation commissioner Poppy Khoza, who called him “a hero” and said he “saved all lives on board.”
However, the snake has not been found. The hope is that it boarded and disembarked on its own.
