Samuel L. Jackson would have been happy this week because an airline managed to prevent a motherf***ing snake ending up on a motherf***ing plane.
Alright, there was probably no need for that language as this snake wasn't causing half as much chaos as the ones in Snakes on a Plane, but you get my point.
Rather than an unwelcome intruder, the snake, named Bartholomew, actually belonged to a woman who claimed he was her emotional support animal; an animal which can provide help and comfort to people with mental health issues.
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He was spotted by TSA agents in Florida's Tampa International Airport last month, when he was found nestled among the woman's hand luggage as she put it through the security scanner.
Bartholomew didn't look to be a particularly tiny or skinny snake - in fact, he was actually a boa constrictor, which can grow up to 13 feet long.
I don't know about you, but I definitely wouldn't want him sitting next to me on the plane.
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In a post on Twitter, TSA spokesperson Lisa Farbstein explained that TSA contacted the airline the woman was supposed to be travelling on to tell them about the snake, and the airline ruled there was 'not going to be a snake on their plane'.
The official TSA Instagram account shared more details about the emotional support animal, though it couldn't resist throwing in a few puns alongside them.
Sharing a picture of the snake from the scanner, the post read: "There’s a danger noodle in that bag… Our officers at Tampa International Airport didn’t find this hyssssssterical! Coiled up in a passenger’s carry-on was a 4’ boa constrictor!
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"We really have no adder-ation for discovering any pet going through an x-ray machine."
TSA went on to explain that airlines don't allow snakes - or 'nope ropes', as they called them - in carry-on bags, and only certain companies allow snakes to fly in checked bags if they're packaged correctly.
"Has all this left you wanting to squeeze out more travel answers? You can always mamba on over to our friends at AskTSA! They’ll rattle out responses to your questions 7 days a week, from 8 a.m. – 6 p.m. (ET)," TSA added. I can't fault their commitment.
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It's unclear where Bartholomew and his owner were trying to get to, but evidently they'd have had to find a different and more snake-friendly mode of transport to complete their trip.
Topics: Animals, Mental Health, Travel
Emily Brown