04 September, 2008

The Maharaja’s Snake

The Times of India reports:

Crew on an Air India passenger jet discovered a snake coiled up under a seat and were unable to catch it as it slithered around the plane, the airline said on Thursday.

While it did not harm any human passenger, the snake did bite the pilot’s cow, which is normally tied up near the toilet at the back.

Okay, fine, I made that second line up. But not the first. There was a snake on a plane, and “it evaded capture by slipping into an air vent and could not be found even when staff unscrewed panels inside the fuselage, opened all the doors and fumigated the plane.”

Later, an Air India spokesman said:

The aircraft was parked at Delhi airport for maintenance purposes. There was a snake but not a cobra.

Well, that’s a relief. And I’m not going to make a government-airline-vs-private-airline joke here because Air Deccan would have made you pay for the damn snake. Or given you one of those lines like ”What, sir? A snake on your lap? I’m sorry, we can’t do anything about it, we’re a low-cost airline. Would you like to buy it a sandwich?”

But at least we have options.

(Link via email from Rajesh Kumar.)