A South African pilot made an emergency landing when he noticed there was a hose under the cockpit seat, the BBC has reported. In an interview with the British broadcaster, the man told about the moments of “terror” on board and the fruitless search for the reptile.
The plane with four passengers on board was flying from Bloemfontein to Pretoria. Pilot Rudolph Erasmus spotted the cobra as he turned left and looked down. The snake had a characteristic way of retracting its head back under the seat. “It was a moment of terror,” Erasmus told the BBC, adding that he was “terrified that the snake might move backwards and cause a collective panic.”
The bite of the Cape cobra found in southern Africa is deadly – it can kill a person in just 30 minutes. Erasmus said that was why he had “thought carefully” about the wording of the message before calmly telling passengers what “visitor” was on board. “Look, the snake is under my seat, so let’s try to land as soon as possible,” he said. There was “absolute silence” in the plane. Soon after, the machine made an emergency landing in the city of Welkom, about 330 km from Pretoria.
The Cape cobra (illustration photo) is responsible for most of the deaths caused by snakes in South African countries.Shutterstock
The snake was previously “hiding” under the plane
However, the snake’s presence, while shocking, was not a complete surprise. Two people working at the Worcester Flying Club, where the plane had previously taken off, said they spotted the reptile “hiding” under the plane before the flight ended in an emergency landing. They tried to “capture” him, but without success.
Erasmus said he tried to find the snake before boarding the plane with his passengers, but failed. So he assumed that this “must have crawled out at night or earlier that morning.” Engineers who searched the plane after the emergency landing have also so far failed to find the animal, the BBC reported on Tuesday afternoon.
Pilot: Praise ‘a bit exaggerated’
Quoted by News 24 Poppy Khoza, director of civil aviation from the Civil Aviation Authority South Africa (SACAA), praised the pilot for “superb flying skills that saved the lives of everyone on board”. Speaking to the BBC, Erasmus spoke about the publicity the latest incident had given him, saying the praise was “a bit exaggerated”: “My passengers have also kept their composure,” he said.
Main photo source: Shutterstock