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Pilot Grasps Stowaway Snake

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2000flyer

EASY FLYER
Joined
Nov 26, 2001
Posts
1,586
This guy has a good sense of humor too...

Pilot Fights Black Snake Stowaway on Plane
Friday, June 02, 2006

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.

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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I love the last paragraph. Gave me a good laugh on a Saturday morning.
 
Pilot Grabs Stowaway Snake

Sounds like the snake had some help getting into the plane ?
Adding snakes to my pre-flight check list !
 
God, I can only imagine the horror of having the wife and kids on board! Would not be good. Black snakes are not poisonous are they? Imagine a freakin Copper Head or something in there. Then it wouldn't matter if the wife or kids were on board. I'd be screaming like a little girl!
 
flybuddy1 said:
Sounds like the snake had some help getting into the plane ?
Adding snakes to my pre-flight check list !

You could be right. Maybe the dude wasnt nice to the line guys....
 
Maybe the dude wasnt nice to the line guys....

Ooooohhhh ... if I had a dollar for every time I thought about sticking a juvenile Cape cobra under the seat of some ass-hat rich guy with his own Baron when I worked the line. :beer:
 
mcjohn said:
God, I can only imagine the horror of having the wife and kids on board! Would not be good. Black snakes are not poisonous are they? Imagine a freakin Copper Head or something in there. Then it wouldn't matter if the wife or kids were on board. I'd be screaming like a little girl!

Depends on what type of black snake. A typical one, not poisonous. But remember, some "black" snakes in the general statement are. For example, the cotton mouth. However, unless he was in a float plane, it wouldn't be a cotton mouth. Black racers and coach whips are not poisonous but they do bite and that could easily lead to an infection. Coach whips defense is to strike towards the face.

Now, I know something about snakes and given the same situation, I would have just left it alone. Chances are it would have stayed put and not ended up at his feet. A snake will only strike a human in basically two situations. One, if you step on it (or try to kick it, etc.), or two, like many snake bite victims, you try to pick it up.
 
2000flyer said:
Depends on what type of black snake. A typical one, not poisonous. But remember, some "black" snakes in the general statement are. For example, the cotton mouth. However, unless he was in a float plane, it wouldn't be a cotton mouth. Black racers and coach whips are not poisonous but they do bite and that could easily lead to an infection. Coach whips defense is to strike towards the face.

Now, I know something about snakes and given the same situation, I would have just left it alone. Chances are it would have stayed put and not ended up at his feet. A snake will only strike a human in basically two situations. One, if you step on it (or try to kick it, etc.), or two, like many snake bite victims, you try to pick it up.

With all due respect, 2000flyer, in a Falcon 2000 or 900- with a snake in the cabin WHO GIVES A SH*T? In a 172 or similar I'm not sure you would be so cool , calm and collected.
 
Cardinal said:
___
"What we got here, little lady, is prime alabama black snake"
"...but it ain't too beaucoup."
 

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