Real life Snakes On A Plane!

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Fire

CAGiversary!
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,197976,00.html

Didn't see it posted.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Monty Coles was 3,000 feet in the air when he discovered a stowaway peeking out at him from the plane's instrument panel — a 4 1/2-foot black snake.

Coles had left Charleston earlier for a leisurely flight over the West Virginia countryside last Saturday in his Piper Cherokee and was preparing to land in Gallipolis, Ohio, when the snake revealed itself.

"Nothing in any of the manuals ever described anything like this," the 62-year-old Cross Lanes resident said. But the advice given 25 years earlier from his flight instructor immediately came to mind: "No matter what happens, fly the plane."

An attempt to swat the snake only resulted in it falling to Coles' feet under the rudder pedals. It then darted to the other side of the cockpit.

While maintaining control of the single-engine plane with one hand, Coles grabbed the reptile behind its head with his other.

"There was no way I was letting that thing go. It coiled all around my arm, and its tail grabbed hold of a lever on the floor and started pulling," Coles said.

(Story continues below)

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The next step was to radio for emergency landing clearance.

"They came back and asked what my problem was. I told them I had one hand full of snake and the other hand full of plane. They cleared me in."

After a smooth landing, Coles posed for pictures with the snake, then let it loose.

"That snake resides in Ohio now," he said. "I wasn't about to bring it home. I don't mind snakes, but I sure like to know where they are."

Coles said he was lucky his usual travel companions, his wife and dachshund, were not on the flight.

"If my wife had been in the plane, I wouldn't have a wife, a plane or myself," Coles said. "I don't know what might have happened if Killer had been in the plane, but it sure would have been a lot more exciting."
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Nobody else thought this line was great?
"I told them I had one hand full of snake and the other hand full of plane. They cleared me in."
 
How appropriate that it was a black snake, as they are sometimes called "pilot" black snakes.

I'm a pilot myself and this is quite an unusual situation, I don't know what I would have done. Black snakes are not venomous, and don't tend to be aggresive. And at only 4.5 feet, it wasn't fully grown. I imagine that I would either leave it alone for the duration of the flight, or crack a window and toss it out. But according to FAR's (Federal Aviation Regulations) throwing stuff out of airplanes is strictly verboten. This guy grappled with it, in-flight, and flew one-handed. Not something that I would want to do. And declaring an emergency just creates all kinds of paperwork, and headaches.
 
[quote name='Rusty Ghia']How appropriate that it was a black snake, as they are sometimes called "pilot" black snakes.

I'm a pilot myself and this is quite an unusual situation, I don't know what I would have done. Black snakes are not venomous, and don't tend to be aggresive. And at only 4.5 feet, it wasn't fully grown. I imagine that I would either leave it alone for the duration of the flight, or crack a window and toss it out. But according to FAR's (Federal Aviation Regulations) throwing stuff out of airplanes is strictly verboten. This guy grappled with it, in-flight, and flew one-handed. Not something that I would want to do. And declaring an emergency just creates all kinds of paperwork, and headaches.[/QUOTE]

Ahh but declaring an emergency pretty much trumps anything and lets you do whatever necessary to avert the emergency. I used to fly too, I didn't get my private pilot certificate but did manage to get some solo hours in. The only major things I didn't get done was solo cross country and night cross country flights.
 
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