Qantas' snakes escape
April 16th 2009 21:46
One of the pythons which did not escape during a Qantas flight
About the only thing Qantas is doing well these days is getting itself in the news for disasters, large and small.
Qantas, the once proud national carrier of Australia, has been on a rocky public relations road ever since an attractive cabin crew member exposed actor Ralph Fiennes' member in a first-class toilet. The airline's management, faced with the potential of a global marketing bonanza by treating the case with a sense of humour, instead imperiously fired her.
Plenty more staff have gone since — in March Qantas axed 90 senior executives and earlier this week announced a plummeting profit and another 1,250 full-time job cuts. In July 2008 a Qantas jumbo plunged 20,000 feet after a faulty door caused an "explosive" depressurisation, leaving a huge hole in the side of the plane.
What they didn't need in these dark days is snakes sliding around a plane full of passengers.
It happened on Tuesday when four snakes escaped from their cage during a flight from Alice Springs to Melbourne.
When the cage containing 12 15-centimetre (six-inch) baby Stimson's pythons was checked after arrival in Melbourne, it was found to contain only eight pythons.
As passengers filed onto the plane for its next flight, worried officials searched for the four missing snakes. Someone suggested they had been eaten by the other snakes, but that hope died after the eight snakes were weighed. No snake snacking there.
Passengers were transferred, the aircraft was fumigated, and still no snakes were found.
"They're not endangered so a decision was made to fumigate. If these snakes turn up they will be very much dead snakes," David Epstein of Qantas said.
The snakes can grow up to a metre in length. They were being transported in the cargo hold of the Boeing 737-800 aircraft in a bag inside a plastic foam box with air holes. How they escaped remains as much a mystery as their whereabouts.
The aircraft returned to service on Wednesday. Qantas announced the disaster on Thursday. Business as usual on Friday, with no-one in the public relations department smiling.
Associated Press, bbc.co.uk; image: ntnews.com.au
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