Real-Life Snakes on a Plane

My First-Hand Account of a Snake Causing Turbulence on a Boeing 737

Photo by Dave Ols on Unsplash

There was a movie called “Snakes on a Plane” that was released in 2006. It wasn't a huge blockbuster, and I haven’t watched it, but I read a review that explained why the movie was worth watching. Samuel Jackson was the leading man, or badass in this case, and basically, he did a lot of swearing. The movie wasn’t horribly cheesy or bad, it did okay and created a lot of talk about the possibility of someone releasing snakes inside a plane. I often wondered if the movie idea was based on an actual experience I had while traveling from Chicago to Nashville.

Flying home with a group of Southwest Airlines employees who were returning from a leadership training class, our Boeing 737 had three seats on the left and two seats on the right side of the aisle. I was sitting in the right aisle seat 25C, next to my friend and coworker Joni. The flight was smooth, and the Captain just announced we were on approach and should be landing on time. The flight attendants were collecting the remaining cups and peanut wrappers and making sure our seats were upright and our bags were secured under the seat in front of us. For some reason, I felt compelled to look over to the adjacent row of seats and noticed that one of our supervisors, Sherri, looked like she had seen a ghost. Her eyes were wide, and her skin was pale.

“What’s wrong? Are you sick?”

She pointed to the bin above my head and said, “There’s a snake.”

“What? Where?”

Then she repeated it loudly and pointed to the overhead bin directly above my head. Sure enough, a snake's head was hanging out of the small crack where the bin opens and closes, looking at me with its beady eyes.

“Oh my God, it’s right there.”

I started ringing for the flight attendant, who came running down the aisle to see what was happening. I told her there was a snake in the overhead bin. She told me we could not get up to move to another seat because we were in the process of landing. Not sure she even believed me at this point.

“What if it falls on my head? Am I just supposed to sit here?”

My friend across the aisle was about to pass out, and my friend sitting beside me handed me a magazine and said, “Here, hold this over your head in case we make a hard landing, and it falls on your head.”

There’s no explanation for what strikes me as funny at the strangest times. The thought of me trying to catch a snake or protect my head from it with an open copy of SkyMall magazine made me start laughing out loud and I couldn’t stop. Probably borderline hysteria.

inside of Boeing 737 passenger plane

By now, everyone sitting near us had heard our conversation, and they were passing the information across the plane. Later, I heard they were betting on whether the snake would fall out. What are friends for, right?

The flight attendant finally saw the snake’s head coming out of the bin, and she changed her tune quickly, grabbing the microphone and practically screaming, “Attention everyone, there is a large snake loose in the overhead bin on row 25. If this is your snake, please ring your overhead to claim it.”

Silence.

“Please keep your seats until after we land. The pilot has reported it to the ground crew and security, and they will come on board to get the snake as soon as we get to our gate and everyone is safely off the plane.”

Everyone on the plane was pointing at me and watching for the snake, who was now sticking its tongue out at me. I could also see that it wasn’t a small snake looking through the gap of the closed bin. It looked rather large.

We landed hard, as I recall, and I think our pilot made the turn to the gate even before we used a fourth of the runway. And thank God, the snake didn’t fall out on my head. The flight attendant announced that my row would be the first off and requested all the passengers to stay seated.

“We will let row 25 out first, and then follow with the last row first and continue from there. Please leave your luggage in the overhead and allow security to search the plane first. We can then allow you to collect your things. We know you have a choice when you fly, and we appreciate you choosing Southwest Airlines.”

I know our flight attendants are required to say the last sentence, but it made me laugh out loud again.

After everyone was off, the ground crew came onboard to remove the stowaway snake. They never found the owner of the snake but suspected someone had brought it onboard in their carry-on bag, and that’s how it escaped and was crawling through the bin. The snake turned out to be a 6-ft-long python. It was given to a local pet store since no one claimed ownership.

The next day, on my way to work, I listened to the local talk radio show and heard the report about a large stowaway snake on our flight. Turns out there was a television reporter on the flight, and it didn’t take long for the news to spread. The report said the flight attendant was visibly shaken, but she and the ground crew did an excellent job of getting everyone off the plane. No mention of the poor girl who was directly under the slithering reptile.

Can’t prove it, but I bet some creative writer heard the report about the snake and decided to make a film about what would happen if the snake had friends and they crawled out and attacked the passengers during a flight!

When I was researching the movie, I asked Dr. Google if there were any additional reports, and not only did I find hundreds of stories, but I discovered that less than a month ago, TSA in Miami had confiscated a bag of snakes hidden in a man’s pants that he was wearing as he went to board his flight. Luckily, they caught it before he boarded.

Better look twice next time you open the overhead bin. Have you ever had a bizarre encounter while flying? I would love to hear your stories!

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