Plane pilot successfully lands with poisonous snake lodged in his seat

A South African pilot managed to land his plane leaning against a cobra present in the cockpit, a gesture welcomed by the country’s authorities on Friday.

“I felt this cool feeling, kind of going up my shirt,” Rudolf Erasmus, a South African pilot who suffered a huge scare during his flight on Monday, told the BBC.

He first thinks that he hadn’t closed his water bottle properly and that it had run down his shirt… But quickly notices that a snake is at his side, lodged in his seat. And it turns out to be a very poisonous cobra.

“As I turned to the left and looked down, I saw the cobra (…) move its head back under the seat”, testifies the pilot.

But faced with the discovery of this fifth passenger, very venomous, Rudolf Erasmus had to launch an emergency landing procedure.