A snake was found inside a plane at an airport in Japan on Monday, prompting the cancellation of the flight.
The 40cm-long reptile was identified as a harmless, non-venomous snake, according to Kyodo News.
Japan Air Commuter, which is part of Japan Airlines, said a mechanic first discovered the snake under the aircraft’s carpet at the Fukuoka airport at about 1pm local time on Monday.
The snake was caught about 24 hours later by a wildlife control expert.
The airline suspected the snake came from the wild but was to confirm exactly how it managed to get inside the aircraft. This was the first such incident it had encountered.
The aircraft had arrived from the Izumo airport in Shimane prefecture on 19 October and was due to leave Fukuoka at 12.50pm local time that day for Kagoshima prefecture.
However, the flight was cancelled after the snake was spotted while the aircraft was being prepared for departure.
“As far as we can determine, there has never been a case of a snake getting into the cabin,” the airline said in a statement. “We are sorry for the inconvenience caused to passengers.”
In 2019, a man accidentally carried a snake onboard a flight from Florida to Hawaii in the US.
The 20-year-old passenger discovered he had carried the reptile in his bag only when it slithered out of his rucksack once he’d arrived at a holiday rental property in Pukalani, Maui.
About 30cm long and 63mm in diameter, the black racer snake was non-venomous, according to the US Department of Agriculture.
In 2022, an AirAsia flight had to be rerouted after a snake was spotted in the cabin.
A video of the hitchhiking reptile was posted on X, showing a pale yellow snake slithering along the lighting panel of the plane cabin.
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