[bbfan1991]

A snake forced a small plane to turn back to base after it emerged from the cockpit's control panel mid-flight.

In a scene reminiscent of Samuel L Jackson's Snakes on a Plane, just 20 minutes after taking off from a Darwin airport, pilot Braden Blennerhassett received an unpleasant surprise.

He told ABC News: "Sure enough, out of the corner of my eye, I see a little bit of movement there.

"Lo and behold, in between the instrument panel and the dashboard, a stowaway came on board and it took me a while to register that it was actually a snake."

To make matters worse, the snake was lying in between the pilot and the radio control button.

"I turned [the plane] around and got it headed back towards Darwin there and said, 'Look, you're not going to believe this. I've got snakes on a plane'," in a line taken almost entirely from the Hollywood film.

This similarity meant that air traffic control originally thought Blennerhassett was joking, until he requested a snake handler be brought to the airfield.

The aircraft was a freight plane, and was therefore not carrying any passengers.

Director of freight company Air Frontier Geoffrey Hunt told reporters: "I've heard of crocodiles being loose in planes but not snakes."

After landing the plane, the pilot quickly left the cockpit to allow the snake handlers to catch the reptile. However, by this time it was nowhere to be seen.

"Until we find the snake, it's not good for business," Hunt said. "Obviously we won't be using [the plane] until we're comfortable the snake is not on board anymore."

The mildly venomous snake has since been caught using a trap containing a live mouse.

[Patrick]

LOL!
Quality.

[Patrick]

LOL!
Quality.

[Marc]

I'd die

[bbfan1991]

Originally Posted by Marc

I'd die

Same.