Passengers on a
Virgin Australia
flight from
Melbourne
to
Brisbane
were delayed for nearly two hours on Tuesday afternoon, thanks to an unexpected stowaway.
What’s believed to be a green tree snake was discovered inside the cargo hold of Virgin flight VA337 shortly before departure.
Cabin crew spotted the reptile and quickly shut the cargo door, locking it inside before calling for assistance.
That’s when professional snake catcher Mark Pelley, known as ‘The Snake Hunter’, was called in to deal with the slippery intruder.
‘I got a call from Virgin Australia. They said, ‘There’s a snake on a plane, can you come now?’ I raced out there,’ Pelley told Daily Mail Australia.
He said it took him about half an hour to reach the airport, but getting through security added another delay.
‘It took me about 30 minutes to get to the airport, then security took another 15 minutes to let me through.’
By that point, passengers had already boarded and were left waiting on the tarmac while the situation was handled.
Pelley explained that he only had one shot to catch the snake, warning that it was small enough to disappear into the inner workings of the aircraft.
‘If I didn’t get it on the first go, it could’ve escaped behind the panels and into the plane. So I had to rush and get it quickly,’ he said.
‘Thankfully, it didn’t get too far.’
It took Pelley just 30 seconds to catch the snake and secure it in a container.
He later confirmed the creature was a green tree snake — a non-venomous species native to Queensland, where the plane had flown in from earlier in the day.
‘It’s likely someone accidentally packed it in their luggage, and it got out during the flight,’ he explained.
Pelley praised Virgin Australia for their handling of the incident.
‘This kind of thing could happen anytime, anywhere in Australia. At no point were any passengers at risk,’ he said.
The snake will be handed over to environmental authorities and is expected to be returned to the wild in Queensland.
While Pelley has responded to airport calls before, this was a first for him.
‘I’ve been called to the airport before, but never into the plane itself. I’ve dealt with brown snakes in offices, inside infrastructure and support buildings.’
‘Once, I even had to clear a snake off the runway. I had to drive my car onto the tarmac to remove it, planes were delayed just to let me do my job.’
Flight VA337 was originally scheduled to depart at 4:10 p.m., but didn’t take off until approximately 6:23 p.m.
It landed in Brisbane at around 8:30 p.m.
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