travel

There Was an Actual Snake on a Plane

Spotted python.
Spotted python. Photo: Vicki Nunn

After what I’d like to assume was a lovely vacation in Australia, a Scottish woman unknowingly boarded her plane home with an unwanted souvenir tucked into her shoe: a live snake.

According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, when Moira Boxall first opened her suitcase and saw the reptile in her shoe, she thought her daughter, Sarah, and son-in-law, Paul Airlie, were playing a prank on her — as in, she thought it was fake. Alas, she soon discovered that the snake was actually real, and that it had survived the 9,300-mile trip from Queensland to Glasgow. The little traveler, later identified as a non-venomous spotted python, even had time to shed its skin during the trip!

Apparently, Boxall thought she had spotted a snake in her room during her time in Queensland — an incident that startled her, Airlie told ABC, meaning she certainly didn’t intend to travel home with one.

“She was not at all expecting to find the snake when she was unpacking a bag when she got back to Scotland,” said Airlie, who lives in Australia. Upon discovering the animal, she put the snake-containing shoe in her garden with a box over it, and called Airlie, who rang the Scottish RSPCA. Per ABC, the snake has been taken into quarantine, but as of now, its fate is yet undecided; there is, however, a decent chance the little guy may soon call the Glasgow zoo its new home.

Good thing the airline didn’t know about this — if a squirrel or a peacock can’t pass as an emotional support animal, a snake definitely can’t. Especially if Samuel L. Jackson isn’t onboard to defend all passengers in case of a Snakes on a Plane–level emergency.

There Was an Actual Snake on a Plane