Pilot lands plane with venomous cobra on board

A pilot in South Africa managed to safely land a plane after learning that he had an unwanted passenger aboard. Rudolf Erasmus landed the aircraft after a venomous Cape cobra came in contact with him during the flight.

Erasmus reportedly told CNN that he experienced a "cold sensation … underneath my shirt at my hip area."

"At first, I thought it was my water bottle leaking," he noted, according to the outlet. "As I then turned to my left and I looked down, I saw the head of the snake receding back underneath my seat."

"I usually travel with a water bottle that I lodge between my leg and my hip towards the side wall of the aircraft. When I felt this cold sensation where my love handles are, I thought my bottle was dripping," he said, according to TimesLIVE. "As I turned to my left and looked down, I saw the cobra putting its head back underneath my seat."

"I had a moment of stunned silence, not sure if I should tell the passengers because I didn't want to cause a panic. But obviously they needed to know at some point what was going on," he said, according to TimesLIVE.

Erasmus alerted the passengers about the problem, and he eventually landed the plane.

The snake was under the seat when Erasmus disembarked, but unfortunately, because it later disappeared, it was not captured.

"He remained calm in the face of a dangerous situation and managed to land the aircraft safely without any harm to him or his fellow passengers on board, displaying to the world that he is an aviation safety ambassador of the highest order," South African Civil Aviation Authority director of civil aviation Poppy Khoza noted regarding the pilot.

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