I Learned About Flying From That

Julian Galvis

Saturday, May 16, 2009 at 08:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

A private flight to the Bahamas experienced a terrifying emergency when a copperhead snake emerged in the cockpit, slithering across the controls and passengers.
Despite the extreme fear and distraction caused by the snake, the pilots maintained control of the aircraft, communicated with air traffic control, and safely diverted to a visual flight rules (VFR) airport.
The co-pilot attempted to secure the snake mid-flight, and upon landing, a ground crew member identified and safely removed the venomous reptile.
The incident underscored the importance of pilot training and maintaining composure to "fly the plane" even under highly stressful and unexpected circumstances.

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“Fly the plane, fly the plane, fly the plane!” I remembered my instructors from years back drilling this phrase into my head during my training … and it would pay off!

It was a foggy April morning in Atlanta. I had checked the weather the night before and the ceilings were forecast to be low but getting better throughout the day. We were all excited about this trip to the Bahamas. It had been planned by one of our clients, Superior Flight School at Cobb County/McCollum Field (RYY). Superior does the recurrent training for the licensed pilots in our company and they plan a number of trips like this each year for their customers and friends.