Stowaways are a rare occurrence but that doesn’t mean that they don’t show up from time to time.
While we may imagine them to come in the form of a human fleeing a country, a flight from Kuala Lumpur (KL) had a different kind of surprise passenger — a snake.
In a TikTok video, the AirAsia flight headed towards Sabah from Malaysia’s capital had the reptile slithering in the overhead compartments.
Due to the unexpected guest, the pilot rerouted the flight to Sarawak in order to protect the passengers’ safety.
In the video clip uploaded on TikTok, a silhouette of a snake is seen in the overhead compartment of an aeroplane cabin.
While the creature appeared rather small and benign, its movement probably created some unease among passengers onboard.
The worrying sight is accompanied by a caption that explained that because of the snake, the pilot had to make an emergency landing.
According to Channel NewsAsia (CNA), the Sabah-bound flight diverted from its course after a snake was spotted in the overhead compartment on Thursday (10 Feb).
The captain was promptly notified and he decided to divert the aircraft to Kuching, Sarawak, instead.
In a statement to CNA, AirAsia said that this decision was a precautionary measure. The airline intended to fumigate the entire aircraft before they could deem it “safe for flight”.
According to AirAsia, incidents like these can happen from time to time and the captain responded appropriately.
They also assured that the safety of everyone on board was not at risk during the whole ordeal.
While it’s unclear if they managed to retrieve the snake, one can presume so, as the plane reportedly took off for its initial destination later that same day.
Even though we have become accustomed to spotting wildlife in our daily lives, one would never expect to see a snake while flying high in the sky.
Thankfully, the pilot responded calmly and no one was in danger throughout the ordeal.
If anything, this makes for a great story for when someone asks how your flight was.
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Featured image adapted from @edal8808 on TikTok and JACQUES PANAS on Flickr.
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