Passengers 'Started Shrieking' When They Saw Snake on Plane

"Enough is enough! I have had it with these (expletive) snakes on this (expletive) plane," Samuel L. Jackson's character declared at one point in Snakes on a Plane. There was only one snake on a flight from Tampa to Newark on Monday afternoon, but that was more than enough for passengers. A passenger tells News 12 New Jersey that passengers in business class "started shrieking and pulling their feet up" when the apparent stowaway was spotted after United Airlines Flight 2038 had landed in Newark and was taxiing on the runway.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said airport wildlife operations staff and police officers removed a garter snake from the plane, the Washington Post reports. The Port Authority said the snake was released into the wild. Garter snakes, which are usually 18 to 26 inches long, are nonvenomous and only bite people when "intentionally molested," according to the Florida Musem of Natural History. Unlike in the 2006 movie, in which Jackson's character battled dozens of venomous snakes, the incident did not affect airport operations, CNN notes. (In 2012, an Australian pilot made an emergency landing after finding a snake in the cockpit.)