The snakes were being carried in what appeared to be a sunglasses pouch.
Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers at airports across the United States often have to confiscate items that passengers inadvertently carry through the checkpoints. While most of these are innocent mistakes, sometimes, passengers try to find unique ways to fool the system and carry prohibited items, or, in the recent incident at Miami International Airport, live snakes!
Snakes in the pants
The list of items not allowed to be carried onto an airplane is long. And it’s safe to say that snakes are part of the list. Still, a passenger decided to try their luck carrying the reptiles before catching a flight at Miami International Airport recently.
The incident occurred on April 26 when Transportation Security Administration officers in Miami noticed something amiss with one of the passengers. When the items in the traveler’s pockets were examined, a small bag resembling a sunglasses pouch was found containing two live snakes.
The Customs and Border Protection officers and Miami-Dade Police partners were informed to assist with the unusual situation. While it is unclear how the passenger was dealt with, the snakes were handed over to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Not the first time
As unusual as it sounds, the Miami incident is not the first time a passenger has tried to bring snakes onto a plane. Last year, Chennai International Airport in South India saw not one but two incidents of snakes being recovered from a passenger’s bag.
The first one occurred in April 2023 when 22 snakes were recovered from a traveler’s bag who had arrived in Chennai from Kuala Lumpur. Upon examination of her checked-in baggage, 22 snakes of various species and a chameleon were found and seized under the Customs Act, 1962 r/w Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
Then, a few months later, another passenger, who had arrived from Thailand, was caught carrying 123 pythons in his bag. The traveler was intercepted after officers received intelligence inputs of the illegal activity. Eleven ball pythons and one northern white-lipped python were found in the back and were eventually sent back to Thailand.
In December 2022, a passenger was caught trying to carry a snake inside her carry-on bag at Tampa International Airport but was caught by TSA agents after an x-ray examination of the bag.
Snakes and planes
Sometimes, snakes don’t even need a passenger to make their way inside an airplane. In 2022, a snake was found inside the cargo hold of an Air India Express Boeing 737 aircraft that had performed a flight from Calicut in India to Dubai International Airport. It wasn’t clear how the reptile got inside the plane, but a ground handling lapse was suspected.
The same year, a snake caused mass hysteria aboard a United Airlines flight when it was found moving about the cabin. Flight attendants noticed screams emanating from the business class cabin, with passengers seen pulling their legs up from the floor where the snake was spotted.
In 2022 again, an AirAsia flight from Kuala Lumpur to Tawau had to be diverted when a snake was found slithering along an overhead compartment. It wasn’t a particularly large reptile, but given that Malaysia is home to several species of poisonous snakes, the plane had to divert to Kuching in the state of Sarawak in Malaysia.
