Qantas Snake Sequel: A tiny Asian snake was found on board a Japan-bound Qantas Boeing 747 airliner in Australia just months after a python was seen clinging onto another Qantas plane's wing, Yahoo! News reported Tuesday.
A Japan-bound Qantas plane was grounded overnight along with its 370 passengers in Sydney, after an eight-inches-long Asian snake was found on board in the passenger cabin near the door late Sunday.
The said plane was bound for Tokyo from Sydney International Airport, a Qantas statement said, adding that all of the passengers on the said flight were given proper hotel accommodations and left the county Monday on a replacement plane.
Australia's flagship airline said that Qantas Boeing 747 would be fumigated for the time being prior to returning to service to ensure that no other snakes were inside it.
"The snake was taken to quarantine to determine where it came from," a Qantas rep said.
E! Online reported that Mandarin rat snakes such as the one found inside the plane are predominantly found in Asia. The flight had just returned from Singapore, so many claimed that it could have been where the tiny reptile came from.
According to the Agricultural Department, the snake belongs to the species that grows to an average of 1.2 meters or 4 feet. The department also confirmed that the snake had been euthanized, "as exotic reptiles of this kind can harbor pests and diseases not present in Australia."
"The Department of Agriculture is looking into how the snake came to be on the plane, but isn't able to speculate at this time," the department added in a statement.
The said Asian snake was mildly venomous and was the size width only of a pencil. It did not pose a threat to humans, but it was seen as a potential vector of pests and disease-causing microbes and as an agent of ecological havoc in the Australian environment if it had escaped with a mate, Canberra Reptile Zoo herpetologist Peter Child said.
Meanwhile, in January, a 3-meter or 10-foot python was spotted clinging on to the wing of another Qantas plane which was heading to Papua New Guinea from northeast Australia. The python reportedly died during the flight while, but it was still found attached to the wing after the two-hour flight.
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