Passengers on an AirAsia flight had to reroute their trip after discovering an uninvited passenger on board.
In one videotapes shared on TikTok by user @edal8808, what appears to be a long snake can be seen slithering through an overhead spotlight. In the caption, the user wrote that the flight from the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur to Tawau had to make an emergency landing in Kuching instead, according to a translation of the text.
AirAsia did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NPR. However, airline security director Liong Tien Ling confirmed the incident in a statement to CNN Turk.
“AirAsia is aware of the incident that occurred on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Tawau on Thursday. As soon as the captain was notified, the plane was diverted to Kuching for disinfection,” he said.
He went on to say that neither the passenger nor the visitor was in danger, according to the outlet.
Passengers can continue their journey to Tawau on the same day, multinational news network CNA report.
However, travelers with an upcoming flight need not worry that their vacation could turn into a real-life version of Snakes on the plane. In a statement obtained by CNA, Ling noted that what happened Thursday was not a common occurrence.
“This is a very rare incident that can happen on any plane,” he explained.
The video has been viewed more than 2 million times since it was posted on Thursday, and footage of the unexpected discovery has since spread to other social media platforms such as Twitter. However, it’s unclear whether the TikTok user who shared the video was the one who originally shot the video, and they did not respond to a request for comment from NPR.
This isn’t the first time snakes have made their way onto a passenger flight. In 2019, a woman traveling home to Scotland from Australia encountered an unpleasant surprise when she went to pack up and discovered a snake curled up in her luggage. There are even cases where the pilot had to make an emergency landing after finding it snake in the cockpit.
