TODAY (Manila, Philippines) 29 May 03 After terrorists, SARS, python pilot’s new foe (Recto Mercene)
Airport authorities on Thursday captured a 15-foot python after a pilot reported to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport tower that he almost hit a giant snake while landing his aircraft at the runway.
Members of the Airport Ground Operations and Services immediately responded and found the snake in the grassy lot near one of the manholes that are part of the airport sewerage system.
The ground crew did not have any equipment to catch the snake, so the driver of their patrol vehicle tried to run over it. The soft ground gave way and the animal momentarily got free.
A crew member got hold of a long pole with a noose at the end, and soon the snake was caught and placed in a metal cage.
Joseph Agustin, chief of the aircraft movement area environmental management and safety section, said the snake will be transferred to the Parks and Wildlife Bureau in Quezon City for safekeeping.
He said the heavy rains probably drove the snake out of its hole inside the sewerage and electrical outlets that criss-cross the airport compound.
This is not the first time that snakes, including cobras, had been found and killed in the sprawling airport compound.
A few years back, an electrician was busy fixing a cable, dangling his feet inside a man-hole, not realizing that two seven-foot long cobras were hiding below.
The presence of the man frightened the snakes and they hissed, alerting the electrician, who jumped out of the man-hole. He almost fainted on the spot with what he saw. The poisonous snakes were killed.
After terrorists, SARS, python pilot’s new foe