Posted on 08/25/2007 12:45:18 PM PDT by stm
BROOKHAVEN, Miss. - It was no movie moment when a physician, flying himself across Mississippi in a one-seat plane, discovered a stowaway a gray rat snake.
Dr. Ed Carruth discovered the snake-on-a-plane when it began "licking" his arm Thursday, he told The Daily Leader of Brookhaven.
"I've been flying planes for 50 years and over 14,000 hours, and this is the most unusual in-flight emergency I've encountered," he said. "I guess it wasn't exactly an emergency, but I did almost hurt myself when I saw it."
Needing to fly the plane and lacking tools to get rid of the snake, "I did some aerobatics," Carruth said. "And once he got oriented, he went to the back of the plane."
When Carruth arrived at Brookhaven Municipal Airport after his flight from Meridian, officials called a snake expert to remove the reptile. It's not uncommon for snakes to live in airplane hangars, said Joey Pradillo, the expert.
"The snakes are in there after the mice. And the hangar is cool on the inside, and that's why he was in there in the first place," he said. Pradillo released the snake into the wild.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I get creeped-out by spiders.
They’re not even poisonous, are they?
What's his party affiliation? That might explain why a RAT snake would freak him out.
No, but they can be very big and freaky.
I had an airplane when I lived in Memphis.
I am sure most any pilot would freak out if one slithered
in for a little companionship.
ping to new pingees
Gray Ratsnakes are so laid back, unless you are a rat, that you’d really have to goad it to make it bite.
aviation
Gray Rat Snake.
Cute little bugger.
L
Rat snakes impersonate rattlesnakes frequently as a means of self defense. They even change their heads to diamond shapes and hiss to sound like rattles. They’ve scared me more than once.
Oh, that’s just my pet snake Reggie!
*LOL* Wuss is right. I worked in a pet store years ago. One of my favorite snakes was a near 7 ft labyrinth Burmese python. I’d wear this snake wrapped around me every chance I got during shifts. A coworker owned a 11 ft albino Burmese python. Halloween was made memorable when the store owner stood in the front entranceway of the store (we were in a mall) with the albino python wrapped around him and handed out candy to the trick-or-treaters.
Is it me, or has there been a lot of “snake in a plane” stories lately?
Every snake to me is a poisonous snake! I hate snakes!!!!!!!!!!
Lord, have mercy, what you got to watch out for is HOOPSNAKES! They will twist around and grab their tail in their mouth, and roll down the hill at 60 mph, AND EAT YOU!
I see Rat Snakes almost daily, they don’t “impersonate” anything. I just pick them up and move them out of the way.
If you really persist, and aggravate a Rat Snake enough to bite you, it may die. Their teeth are fragile, biting you may cause a fatal mouth infection. Rat Snakes can live for 25 years, and they are no way totally stupid.
I don’t want to pick on you, but if you’re gonna get scared find something really scary!
Last thing to scare me was a Yankee girl from Atlantic City, pretty little critter, almost fooled me!
“Every snake to me is a poisonous snake! I hate snakes!!!!!!!!!!”
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