Stowaway Snake Found on Commercial TUI Flight From Mexico to London
- A cabin cleaner discovered a stowaway snake on a Tui Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner at London Gatwick after a nine-hour flight from Cancun, Mexico
- Tui temporarily grounded the aircraft and laid traps, but the snake evaded capture and disappeared inside the plane
- Experts eventually concluded the snake had likely left the aircraft on its own, allowing Tui to resume normal flight operations

Source: Twitter
A cabin cleaner made an unexpected discovery at London Gatwick airport on 5 June after a Tui Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner touched down from Cancun, Mexico. Hiding somewhere inside the aircraft was a non-venomous snake that had quietly survived the entire nine-hour transatlantic journey without a single passenger noticing it. An aircraft cleaner found the reptile during a routine check after the plane landed.
The snake that refused to be caught
Tui immediately grounded the aircraft as a precaution and set traps throughout the cabin to locate and remove the unwanted passenger. Despite the efforts of the airline's team, the snake proved impossible to track down and eventually vanished somewhere within the plane. With traps going untouched and no further sightings reported, wildlife experts were brought in to assess the situation.

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How the snake possibly gained entry into the plane
Their conclusion gave Tui the all-clear, UK publication Independent reported. The experts advised that the snake had most likely found its way off the aircraft altogether, rather than remaining hidden inside. On that basis, the airline was satisfied that the plane posed no risk to travellers and standard flight operations resumed. Remarkably, not one passenger on the Cancun-to-Gatwick flight reported seeing the snake at any point during the journey, suggesting the reptile kept well out of sight throughout the trip.
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Source: Briefly News