An airline was caught up in real life ‘Snakes on a Plane’ drama after a passenger was bitten by a deadly cobra.
Pet shop owner Akram Abdul Latif smuggled the venomous reptile on the flight from Cairo to Kuwait – terrifying his 90 fellow flyers.
And the Kuwaiti quickly regretted the decision when the snake bit him as he tried to keep control of it.
With a lethal snake on the loose and a man having suffered a potentially-fatal bite, the pilot was forced to land at the nearby Red Sea resort of Al Ghardaqa.
Mr Latif is understood to have initially refused medical treatment but was eventually transferred to a nearby hospital.
The EgyptAir plane later resumed its flight to Kuwait after local authorities confiscated the snake, following the incident on Monday.
Egyptian cobras can reach up to three-metres in length and are among Africa’s deadliest reptiles.
The venom of an Egyptian Cobra can kill a full grown Indian Elephant in three hours. In humans its venom causes paralysis and death due to respiratory failure.
A spokesperson for EgyptAir said: “He was bitten in his hand and after we administered first aid he insisted on taking the snake with him to Kuwait.”