Picture the movie “Snakes on a plane” starred by Samuel L. Jackson. Now remove him from the picture, add a 90-passenger plane and a single Egyptian Cobra instead of the variety of snakes in the movie. Yes, it has happened in real life.
An Egyptian Cobra in an airplane bit a passenger and started slithering beneath the seats. A 48-year old Jordanian passenger on-board an Egyptian Air flight from Egypt to Kuwait was smuggling an Egyptian Cobra in his hand carry luggage. The man owns a reptile shop. The snake got agitated during flight and when the owner tried to control it, bit him and went loose. The pilot was forced to make an emergency landing at the airport of Hurgada which is about 300 miles from Cairo, the capital of Egypt. The flight was resumed after the snake was caught and confiscated by airport officials. The injured man refused to get medical treatment, claiming that his wounds were not deep. Doctors told the passenger to spend a day in the hospital in case any damage might have been caused by the bite.
A catastrophe could have occurred if the snake somehow got out of bag without the owner being aware of it. This is not the first incident of its kind. In April 2012, a pilot had to make an emergency landing after discovering a green tree snake in his cockpit. Apparently this non-venomous snake was after its meal, a green tree frog which was also on-board the flight in Australia. In June 2011, a scorpion bit a passenger on-board a flight from Seattle to Anchorage in The United States.
