A plane’s landing time was delayed in Phalaborwa for a few minutes because its pilot didn’t want to run over a 3.7 meter African rock python snake at the Phalaborwa Airport last week.

The snake, weighing 22.5 kg, was spotted next to the runway by the fire brigade who was looking for wild animals nearby and on the runway before the plane was about to land.

The Phalaborwa Snake Club was contacted who caught the snake and released it back into the wild.

The plane was traveling from the O.R. Tambo Airport. In a previous incident another rock python was found outside the airport’s fence.

This snake was 4.4 meters long and weighed approximately 26 kg.

An African rock python was also discovered inside one of the Maponya 911 Emergency Services vehicle’s engine in Phalaborwa in June last year.

The huge African python was named Monty by the Maponya911 Ambulance Services, while they waited from early morning for her to leave the ambulance. A woman walking her dogs had spotted her near the fence of a local airstrip about 1km from the Kruger National Park, and contacted emergency services.

According to an emergency worker of Maponya911 it was reported that the snake turned around and tried to bite him in the buttocks and then it went under the ambulance.

‘Monty’ had a little bit of a skin injury.

She hurt herself when she got into the ambulance, and when she got out she scratched her scales on something, the emergency worker said.

The snake handler, Zian van den Bergh then said that the snake cannot be forced out and that they will have to wait for it to come out on its own.

“It’s stuck inside the ambulance. I saw that it has a minor skin injury. We’ll wait for it to come out. We’ll quarantine it and check for injuries. We’ll then relocate it,”

It is believed that ‘Monty’ will be released back into the wild this coming weekend after his rehabilitation.

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