A plane pilot finds himself face to face with a cobra in his cockpit in mid-flight

He then felt a “sensation of cold […] under his shirt, at hip level”, as he explains to CNN.

”At first I thought it was my leaking water bottle, he explains. When I turned to the left and looked down, I saw the serpent’s head recede under my seat. I had a stunning moment of silence, more like my brain hadn’t registered what was going on, to be really honest. It was a moment of disbelief, I think”.

Faced with the cobra which had entered his cockpit, Rudolph Erasmus had to react quickly. After warning his four passengers, he initiated an emergency landing. “Listen, the snake is inside the plane, it’s under my seat, so let’s try to land as soon as possible”, he soberly explained to the passengers. Fearing a general panic that could have excited the snake, the pilot faced a completely different reaction: “You could hear a needle drop and I think everyone froze for a moment or two”, he confides, remembering a chilling silence.

It was in the town of Welkom that the pilot made his landing, less than 160 kilometers from his departure town. Poppy Khosa, South Africa’s Civil Aviation Commissioner, later praised the impressively cool-headed pilot: “He showed great airmanship which saved all lives on board.”