Newark airport authorities remove snake from a plane

By Gregory Wallace, CNN

Although it sounds like a Hollywood plot, authorities didn’t need help from “Snakes on a Plane” actor Samuel L. Jackson when an airline passenger found a snake underfoot after arriving at Newark Liberty International Airport.

Police and operations employees met the plane at its gate early Monday afternoon “and removed the garden snake,” the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey told CNN. It said nobody was injured.

A passenger onboard told News 12 The Bronx, a CNN affiliate, that “passengers in business class started shrieking and pulling their feet up” while the flight was taxiing.

United Airlines tells CNN that crew members requested help from airport officials “after being alerted by passengers” to the snake.

The flight was United 2038 from Tampa, according to the Port Authority. Unlike the infamous 2006 film “Snakes on a Plane,” the incident did not impact operations at the airport.

According the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, various types of garter snakes are often colloquially called “garden” snakes. The snakes are nonvenomous, and they are indeed often found in gardens, where they help keep control of pests.

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Top image: United Airlines aircraft are seen at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) in July 2022. (Jeenah Moon/Getty Images/File)