On a Qantas flight yesterday, a tiny exotic snake was discovered, resulting in a delay for 370 passengers in Sydney overnight.
Late on Sunday, staff located a 20cm (eight inch) Mandarin Rat Snake in the passenger cabin near the door, just before passengers were set to board the Boeing 747 that was scheduled to fly from Sydney International Airport to Tokyo, as stated by Qantas.
Passengers were accommodated overnight in hotel rooms by Australia’s flagship carrier, and they departed Sydney on a replacement aircraft on Monday morning. Qantas mentioned that the original plane would undergo fumigation to ensure there were no other snakes on board before it returned to service.
Quarantine officials took custody of the snake for further analysis.
The Agriculture Department reported that the snake, which is a species that can reach an average length of 1.2 metres (4 feet), had to be euthanized, explaining that “exotic reptiles of this kind can harbor pests and diseases that are not present in Australia.”
