Upon finding a highly venomous cobra hiding under his seat, a South African pilot made a hasty emergency landing.
A fairly large Cape Cobra's head was receding under the seat of Rudolf Erasmus's light aircraft as he felt "something cold" slide across his lower back.
'It was like my brain didn't understand what was going on', he told The Associated Press.
His passengers were informed of the slippery stowaway after he took a moment to compose himself.
Everyone remained calm, especially the pilot. "There was a stunned silence," he said.
He still had to fly for another 10 to 15 minutes and land the plane with the snake curled up at his feet after he called air traffic control for permission to make an emergency landing in Welkom, South Africa.
“I kept looking down to see where it was. It was happy under the seat,” Erasmus said. “I don’t have a big fear of snakes but I normally don’t go near them.”
An aviation expert, Brian Emmenis, who works at Gold FM in Welkom, was contacted to see if he could help. He called the fire and rescue department, who sent emergency responders and a snake handler to meet the plane at the airport. After arriving at the scene, Emmenis saw everyone disembark, “visibly shaken,” but they were all okay thanks to the stoic pilot.