Pilot becomes a hero for safe landing after he finds cobra in the cockpit

Flight experts lauded South African pilot Rudolf Erasmus for a safe emergency landing after a highly venomous Cape cobra reared its head in the cockpit mid-flight.

The pilot who has five years of flying experience maintained his nerve as the cobra slid back under his seat as soon as he saw it. He was flying a small aircraft with four passengers on Monday morning, from Worcester to Nelspruit.

Erasmus explained his plight to TimeLive.

"When we did the preflight [procedure] on Monday morning, the people at Worcester airfield told us they had seen a Cape cobra lying underneath the wing on Sunday afternoon. They tried to catch it themselves but unfortunately it sought refuge inside the engine cowlings. The group opened the cowlings but the snake was not there so they assumed it had slithered away," he said.

"I usually travel with a water bottle that I lodge between my leg and my hip towards the side wall of the aircraft. When I felt this cold sensation where my love handles are, I thought my bottle was dripping. As I turned to my left and looked down, I saw the cobra putting its head back underneath my seat," he also said.

For a moment he was stunned silent, he also said.

"I had a moment of stunned silence, not sure if I should tell the passengers because I didn't want to cause a panic. But obviously they needed to know at some point what was going on," he added.

"I just said, 'listen, there's a problem. The snake is inside the aircraft. I've got a feeling it's under my seat so we are going to have to get the plane on the ground as soon as possible," the pilot said.

The flight was close to the airport at Welkom and hence Erasmus declared an emergency with the control tower in Johannesburg.

"I told them I had an unwelcomed passenger. As soon as the aircraft came to a stop, we started getting out. The three passengers in the back came out first and then the one sitting in front with me," he also said.

"I got out last and as I rolled the seat forward, I saw it curled underneath my seat. We contacted a few people around trying to get some snake handlers but by the time they arrived it had disappeared inside the aircraft again," Erasmus added.

Engineers stripped parts of the plane to find the snake, but were unable to do so as night time fell. They decided that they would continue in the morning.

"Aviation specialist and SA chief air show commentator Brian Emmenis, who has been in aviation for 38 years, said that Erasmus had displayed the 'greatest aviation skill.'

He said that he had never heard of such a case in the four decades of his career.

"The weather was horrendous. The pilot had done well, having to concentrate on foul weather, having a cobra in his aircraft and four passengers to look after," he said while adding that had the snake bit the pilot, he would have died.

"He is an absolute hero. He could have panicked. He could have put that aeroplane in an uncontrollable spin. He could have rolled the aircraft with passengers falling all over the show, and with the bad weather, he could have lost sight of the ground and crashed, not only killing those on board but also people on the ground," Emmenis said.