DARWIN, Australia — Shortly after he took off in a twin-engine Beechcraft Baron, a pilot was forced to make an emergency landing that would have been believable only in a Hollywood thriller. The Associated Press reported on Yahoo that as Air Frontier pilot Braden Blennerhassett was flying a solo cargo flight from Darwin in northern central Australia, a snake stuck its head from behind his dashboard several times. Then the snake glided out and then slithered across and down his leg. He didn’t know if the snake was venomous and he said that he tried to keep his hands still while maneuvering the plane back to Darwin, while trying not to antagonize the snake while trying to ignore thoughts about the Hollywood movie “Snakes on a Plane,” in which deadly snakes are deliberately released in an airliner as part of a murder plot. Blennerhassett said his blood pressure and heart rate were “a bit elevated.” Firefighters and wildlife rangers have tried to catch the snake unsuccessfully but one ranger believes it is a golden tree snake, which is one of the few Australian snakes that are non-venomous.
Monday, April 9, 10 a.m.
