A snake on a plane prompted United Arab Emirates (UAE) carrier Emirates Airline to cancel one of its flights from Muscat, in neighbouring Oman, to Dubai on Sunday, UAE daily Gulf News reported on Monday.

The daily quoted an Emirates spokesperson as saying that flight EK0863 from Muscat to Dubai was cancelled “due to the detection of a snake in the cargo hold prior to passengers boarding.”

The spokesperson said Emirates apologises to the passengers for the inconvenience caused.

The aircraft re-entered service after the snake was removed, the airline said.

Wild animals do appear on passenger planes from time to time, sometimes even in the cabins.

In May last year, two tarantulas that probably escaped from a passenger’s luggage caused panic on an Air Transat flight from Punta Cana, in the Caribbean island of the Dominican Republic, to Montreal, Canada, British daily The Guardian reported.

No passenger was hurt in the incident. Both spiders were later caught, one during the flight and the other after the plane landed.(Xinhua/NAN)