Thai Air Asia: Passengers horrified as live snake spotted slithering in overhead cabin mid-flight

Passengers on a Thai AirAsia flight from Bangkok to Phuket were startles and horrified as they discovered a snake was in the cabin’s overhead compartment. The tiny snake was seen slithering over the overhead cabin lights above the overhead compartment on the flight which departed on Saturday 13 January.

It was not immediately clear how the snake ended up inside the aircraft. One of the cabin crew members reportedly tried to capture the snake inside an empty disposable plastic water bottle. The snake was later swept into a garbage bag using a plastic bottle.

The snake was found as the plane was preparing to land at the Phuket airport. Once the plane landed, the aircraft was searched thoroughly but no other snakes were found. 

A TikTok video of the incident, shared by a user with the handle @wannabnailssalon, gathered over 3.4 million views since it was posted. Some commented on the post likening the situation to the Hollywood film “Snakes on a Plane” – a 2006 action thriller that follows an FBI agent escorting a witness on a flight when criminals release venomous snakes.

In a statement sent to CNN, AirAsia Thailand said it was aware of an incident onboard Flight FD3015 that departed Don Mueang International Airport in Bangkok on 13 January. It is not the first time a snake has been spotted on an AirAsia plane.

In February 2022 a spotted python was found onboard one of its domestic flights in Malaysia travelling from the capital Kuala Lumpur to Sabah. The plane ended up being re-routed to Kuching International Airport in the state of Sarawak because of the incident.

Videos and photos of the 2022 incident went viral on social media and showed the reptile slithering through the plane’s light fixtures. At the time the airline said in a statement: “This is a very rare incident which can occur on any aircraft from time to time”. Phol Poompuang, head of corporate safety of AirAsia Thailand, also reiterated this stating that the latest snake spotting was still “a very rare incident."