August 24
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.

"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 Airport, 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.
go

Lovey Dovey

Licking his arm

I don't know why, but that tickled me

Who said you can't have 'Snakes on a Plane"lol....

At least he didn,t panic and they were able to release the snake unharmed!

didn't panic ? i'll bet his pants are wet
glad the snake not killed

good thing he didn't beat up the snake to death.

I wouldn't want to fly that plane after him. Ewwwwwwwwwww

*Grins* Glad the slithery one's okay though. And hope the doc gave his stow-away a nummy snack before releasing him.