Airbnbs on planes for slithering stowaways

The most memorable line in the very forgettable 2006 film, ‘Snakes on a Plane’, has Samuel L Jackson say in a very typical Samuel L Jacksony way, ‘I’ve had it with these mothafuckin’ snakes, on this mothafuckin’ plane! Everybody strap in, I’m about to open some fuckin’ windows!’ Since grown-ups are reading this column, hopefully you will be shocked by the knowledge of creepy-crawlies inside an airborne airplane, and not by intemperate language. But you will also find comfort knowing that the depiction is fictional. But after Australia’s Qantas Airways made a statement that rattlesnakes and scorpions have made some grounded airplanes in California their home, that comfort may, well, fly.

With more than two-thirds of planes grounded during the height of the pandemic, dry heat and low humidity of places like the Mojave Desert made for ideal ‘storage facility of aircraft’. But these are also home for scary critters. Most of these creatures find Airbnb facilities in the wheels of parked planes. But with more and more flights now taking off, will stewardesses find passengers more dangerous than drunk desis? Will in-flight entertainment veer to real horror? All we can say is, check your luggage and leg space before settling down. And don’t go all Samuel L Jacksony if you spot a viper slithering down the aisle.