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Snake Gets Loose On Ravn Flight From Aniak To Anchorage

A Ravn Alaska flight attendant handles a pet snake a passenger left on a Ravn plane flying from Aniak to Anchorage on March 19, 2017.
Anna McConnaughy

Snakes aren’t native to the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, but one made it’s way on a Ravn Alaska plane from Aniak to Anchorage on Sunday.

A Ravn Alaska flight attendant puts the pet snake in a plastic bag to hold for the flight from Aniak to Anchorage on March 19, 2017.
Credit Anna McConnaughy
A Ravn Alaska flight attendant puts the pet snake in a plastic bag to hold for the flight from Aniak to Anchorage on March 19, 2017.

A passenger on the previous flight had left his pet snake on the plane and alerted Ravn when he realized he no longer had his traveling companion. 

A flight attendant found the non-venomous, four-to-five foot long reptile beneath a pile of luggage, picked it up with her bare hands, and placed it in a plastic bag where it remained for the rest of the flight.

Ravn issued a statement saying it prohibits rodents, ferrets, reptiles, and snakes being used as service animals on its flights and that the snake was not registered to travel on the aircraft.

The plane landed on time in Anchorage after flying for 90 minutes with a relatively quiet snake on board.

Anna Rose MacArthur served as KYUK's News Director from 2015-2022.