The pilot kept his strength as the cobra slid back under his seat when he saw it.
Johannesburg:
South African pilot Rudolf Erasmus has been praised by aviation experts for a safe emergency landing after a highly venomous Cape cobra reared its head in the cockpit mid-flight.
Erasmus, who has been flying for the past five years, kept his nerve as the cobra slid back under his seat when he saw it.
He was flying a small aircraft with four passengers on Monday morning, from Worcester to Nelspruit.
Erasmus explained his dilemma on the website TimeLive.
“When we preflighted [procedure] on Monday morning, people at Worcester airfield told us they saw a Cape cobra lying under a wing on Sunday afternoon. They tried to catch it but unfortunately it hid inside the engine cowlings. The group opened the cowlings but the snake was not there so they thought it had escaped,” he said.
“I usually travel with a water bottle that I place between my leg and hip towards the side wall of the aircraft. When I felt the cold sensation where my love was, I thought my bottle was leaking. When I turned to my left and looked down, I saw the snake put its head back under my seat,” Erasmus said.
He said he was stunned for a moment.
“I had a moment of stunned silence, not sure if I should tell the passengers because I don’t want to cause a panic. But obviously they have to know at some point what’s going on,” he said.
“I just said, ‘Listen, there’s a problem. The snake is inside the aircraft. I feel like it’s under my seat so we need to get the plane on the ground as soon as possible,” he said.
The flight was close to the airport in Welkom, so Erasmus declared an emergency at the control tower in Johannesburg.
“I told them I had an unwelcome passenger. When the aircraft stopped, we started to exit. The three passengers in the back got out first, then the one sitting in the front with me,” Erasmus said.
“I went out last and when I rolled the chair forward, I saw it curling up under my seat. We contacted some people around who were trying to get some snake handlers but when they arrived it disappeared inside the aircraft again,” said Erasmus.
Engineers stripped parts of the plane in an attempt to find the snake but were unsuccessful as night fell, when they decided to continue the next day.
They also left corn around the plane, to see if the cobra could slip away during the night, but it was still undisturbed the next morning.
Erasmus said they hope it finds its way out while they wait for engineers.
Aviation specialist and SA air show chief commentator Brian Emmenis, who has been in aviation for 38 years, told the website that Erasmus demonstrated “the best of aviation practice”.
Emmenis said he had never heard of such a case in his four decades in the aviation industry.
“The weather was terrible. The pilot did well, had to concentrate in the slow weather, there was a cobra in his aircraft and four passengers to look after,” said Emmenis, adding that if the cobra had bitten the pilot, he died.
“He is an absolute hero. He may have panicked. He could put that plane into an uncontrollable spin. He can roll the aircraft with passengers falling all over the show, and in bad weather, he can lose sight of the ground and crash, not only killing the passengers but also the people on the ground,” Emmenis said. .
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