The snake was found as the plane was boarding in Sydney

Sep 23, 2013 12:03 GMT  ·  By

A flight from Australia to Japan has been grounded on account of a venomous and possibly deadly snake slithering on board.

The serpent was found inside a Qantas 747 jet leaving Sydney for Tokyo. Sky News reports that it was found by staff in the doorway.

It has been identified as a Mandarin rat snake, measuring about eight inches (20cm).

The plane was boarding, and 370 passengers were stranded as the reptile was removed. They were stuck in Sydney over night, but some of them were amused by the incident.

"We got a night in a nice hotel and we lose a day of our trip to Tokyo, but what are you going to do? It's a good story," passenger Noah Harris describes.

Officials from Australia's Agriculture Department have been called in to remove the rat snake and it has been euthanized.

"Exotic reptiles of this kind can harbor pests and diseases not present in Australia," they explain.

They are not sure about how the snake has gotten on the aircraft in the first place. They believe that it could have been carried on an earlier flight from Singapore. The matter is currently under investigation.

"The Department of Agriculture is looking into how the snake came to be on the plane, but isn't able to speculate at this time," their statement reads.

Canberra Reptile Zoo herpetologist Peter Child details that the venomous snake could pose environmental problems if it would escape and affect the Australian habitat.

The Mirror wrote about a similar incident in January, when a python latched on to a Qantas jet wing. It froze before landing.

"I felt quite sad for it, really. For the remainder of the flight, he was trying to pull himself back into the plane, even though he was fighting against 250 mph (402 kph) winds," passenger Robert Weber described.