AirAsia flight re-routed after snake found on plane

‘This is a very rare incident which can occur on any aircraft from time to time’ says airline’s chief safety officer

Inflight safari: the stowaway reptile was spotted in the cabin’s lighting panels (Twitter/Hana Mohsin Khan)

An AirAsia flight had to be re-routed on Thursday after a snake was spotted in the cabin.

A video of the hitchhiking reptile was posted on Twitter by Hana Mohsin Khan, showing a pale yellow snack slithering along the lighting panel of a plane cabin.

“Yikes! Snake on a plane!” Ms Khan captioned the video.

“Either an escaped pet from passenger carry on/luggage or possibly climbed its way into the aircraft from the ground.

“This dude happily stayed inside the illuminated area till plane was diverted.”

The Airbus A320 had been travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Tawau, Malaysia when the snake was reported by passengers.

The pilots made the decision to divert to Kuching, around one hour 45 minutes’ flight from KL, so the snake could be removed and the cabin fumigated.

The airline’s chief safety officer, Captain Liong Tien Ling confirmed the incident in a statement to CNN, saying: “This is a very rare incident which can occur on any aircraft from time to time.

“The Captain took the appropriate action and the flight safely departed for Tawau as soon as possible.

“The safety and well-being of our guests and crew is always our top priority. At no time was the safety of guests or crew at any risk.”

It’s not the first “snakes on a plane” incident to shock air passengers in recent years.

In June 2019, a man accidentally carried a snake onboard a flight from Florida to Hawaii.

The 20-year-old passenger only discovered the 30cm reptile had stowed away in his bag when it emerged from his rucksack once he’d arrived at a holiday rental property in Pukalani, Maui.

And in February 2019, a Scottish woman opened her suitcase after flying home to from Australia and found a spotted python hiding inside one of her shoes.

Moira Boxall realised the snake had made the almost 10,000 mile journey from Queensland to Glasgow with her when she found it curled up in a slip-on sandal.