After discovering an extremely deadly cobra lying under his seat, a pilot in South Africa made an emergency landing.
During Monday’s trip, Rudolf Erasmus had four passengers on board when he felt “something cold” creep across his lower back. He looked down and saw the head of a huge Cape Cobra “receding back under the seat,” as he put it.
“It was as if my brain didn’t know what was going on,” he said, according to The Associated Press.
He notified his passengers of the stowaway after a brief period of reflection.
“There was a startled quiet,” he explained. Everyone remained calm, particularly the pilot.
Erasmus requested permission from air traffic control to make an emergency landing at the town of Welkom in central South Africa. He still had 10 to 15 minutes to fly and land the plane with the snake curled up by his feet.
“I kept glancing down to see if I could find it. It was content under the seat “Erasmus stated this. “I don’t have a large phobia of snakes, but I usually avoid them.”
Brian Emmenis, a Welkom radio station Gold FM employee and aviation specialist, received a phone call asking if he could assist. He called the fire department, who dispatched emergency personnel and a snake handler to the airport to meet the plane. Emmenis arrived first and witnessed everyone disembarking, visibly scared “Emmenis stated that everything was safe because of Erasmus.
“He kept his cool and landed that plane with a deadly venomous Cape Cobra curled up beneath his seat,” Emmenis claimed.
Because of the severity of its venom, Cape Cobras are one of Africa’s most lethal cobra species.
The drama didn’t end there for the hapless pilot.
Welkom snake handler Johan de Klerk and a team of aviation engineers searched the plane for two days but had unable to find the cobra by Wednesday and were unsure if it had escaped unobserved.
Erasmus’ employer, an engineering firm in northern South Africa, wanted its jet returned to Mbombela. As a result, he had to fly it back home, a 90-minute journey with the chance of the cobra still aboard.
Surprisingly, his passengers opted to find another way home.
Erasmus said he wore a thick winter jacket, put a blanket around his seat, and kept a fire extinguisher, insect repellant, and a golf club within arm’s reach in the cockpit.
“I’d say I was on high alert,” Erasmus explained.
The cobra did not emerge on that flight, and the plane has now been totally stripped, but there is still no sign of the snake, according to Erasmus.
The theory is that it got on board before Erasmus and his passengers took off from Worcester in the Western Cape province, where Cape Cobras are commonly seen in South Africa. It could have escaped in Welkom or be lurking somewhere deep within the plane.
“I hope it finds a home,” Erasmus added. “It’s just not my plane.”
