A green tree snake was found in a Virgin Australia flight from Melbourne to Brisbane in the cargo. (Image source: Daily Mail/ website)A flight from Melbourne to Brisbane was recently delayed for nearly two hours after an unexpected stowaway, a green tree snake, was discovered inside the cargo hold just before takeoff.Cabin crew on the Virgin Australia flight quickly shut the cargo door, locking the reptile inside before calling for professional help. Snake catcher Mark Pelley, famously known as The Snake Hunter, was urgently called to the scene.“I got a call from Virgin Australia. They said, ‘There’s a snake on a plane, can you come now?’ I raced out there,” Pelley told Daily Mail Australia. Though he reached the airport in about 30 minutes, security protocols caused an additional delay. “It took me about 30 minutes to get to the airport, then security took another 15 minutes to let me through,” he explained.By the time he was cleared, passengers were already on board, waiting on the tarmac as the situation was being resolved.The video of Pelley capturing the snake has since gone viral. Shared on Instagram by Daily Mail (@dailymail), the clip is captioned: “Passengers on a Virgin Australia flight from Melbourne to Brisbane were delayed for nearly two hours, thanks to an unexpected stowaway. What’s believed to be a green tree snake was discovered inside the cargo hold shortly before departure. Cabin crew spotted the reptile and quickly shut the cargo door, locking it inside before calling for assistance. Tap the link for the full story on DailyMail.com.”The reel has already garnered 145K views.Watch the video here: View this post on Instagram A post shared by Daily Mail (@dailymail)Also Read | Viral Video: Giant python swallows fox in Jharkhand; locals watch in horrorThe unusual incident left social media users both shocked and amused. One user wrote, “Wasn’t there a movie about snakes on a plane?” Another wrote, “How he got his boarding pass and passed security checks.” A third said, “Obviously it’s Australia.”Pelley explained the urgency of the task, saying, “If I didn’t get it on the first go, it could’ve escaped behind the panels and into the plane. So I had to rush and get it quickly. Thankfully, it didn’t get too far.”It took him just 30 seconds to safely catch and secure the snake in a container. He later confirmed it was a green tree snake—a non-venomous species native to Queensland, where the plane had earlier arrived from. “It’s likely someone accidentally packed it in their luggage, and it got out during the flight,” he said.Story continues below this adWhile the incident caused a delay, Pelley praised Virgin Australia’s response. “This kind of thing could happen anytime, anywhere in Australia. At no point were any passengers at risk,” he assured.The snake will be handed over to environmental authorities and is expected to be released back into the wild in Queensland.Though Pelley is no stranger to airport calls, this was a rare experience even for him. “I’ve been called to the airport before, but never into the plane itself. I’ve dealt with brown snakes in offices, inside infrastructure and support buildings. Once, I even had to clear a snake off the runway. I had to drive my car onto the tarmac to remove it planes were delayed just to let me do my job,” he recalled.© IE Online Media Services Pvt LtdTags:snakesocial media virals