By Hamish Hastie
The shipwreck-hunting adventure seeker who ejected a slithery stowaway on a Broome to Perth flight says he had never heard of the Samuel L. Jackson movie Snakes on a Plane before Thursday.
A 10-centimetre snake caused chaos on Virgin Australia flight 1482 on Thursday morning – delaying take off by 20 minutes as cabin crew and passengers scrambled to find it.
Fortunately for them one of the stars of Disney’s worldwide hit Shipwreck Hunters Australia, Andre Rerekura, was on board and he deployed some quick reflexes to remove the wayward Stimpson Python.
Rerekura had just spent several days filming sea snakes near Scott Reef off the Kimberley coast and said he was a little dumbfounded when someone on the plan shouted they’d spotted a snake.
“A couple of lads were standing up, kind of concerned ... people had their legs on the chairs scared of it,” he said.
“It was pretty small, so no one could find it any more and someone also said it could be a brown snake. So then it was like, ‘alright, we’ve got to get everyone off’.
Andre Rerekura (far right) is part of the Shipwreck Hunters Australia team.
“They were getting ready to get everyone off, and then another lady squealed behind us, and I peered over the chair and I noticed a little Stimson Python, which is super harmless.”
Rerekura said he wasn’t a snake wrangler but often went searching for reptiles near his home in Exmouth so he was confident when handling the python.
“It just came straight under our chair pretty much at my feet, so I managed to pick it up and then just carried it off a plane and another guy took it off me, and he went and put it in the bush.”
Rerekura said he was flooded with messages and memes linking his exploits to the 2006 action comedy Snakes on a Plane after he landed in Perth.
He said he’d never seen the film.
“I didn’t even know that was a real thing until people were sending me messages and sending me photos of it,” he said.
“Someone cropped out [Jackon’s] head and put my head on his head in the title screen thing. That’s funny. I’m gonna have to watch it now.”
Shipwreck Hunters Australia star Andre Rerekura after removing the snake from Virgin Australia’s Broome to Perth flight.Credit: Anouska Freedman/Instagram
Footage sent by passenger Jesse Noakes shows passengers clapping when they’re told the snake has been removed.
“There’s never a dull moment in aviation, but that certainly takes the cake,” a cabin crew member can be heard saying over the plane intercom.
“I don’t really know what else to say. Thanks everyone.”
Rerekura’s co-star Anouska Freedman posted to social media praising Rerekura for his efforts. “[Andre Rerekura] saving the day, there was a snake on the plane and he caught it and got it off hahahaha only in Western Australia,” she said.
Virgin said it was aware a snake had been found onboard the flight and had been removed and the flight continued to Perth as normal. The airline thanked passengers for their patience.