CREW on an Air India jet discovered a snake coiled under a seat, but were unable to catch it.
The snake was disturbed during a routine check on the Air India A319, which had landed at Delhi after a domestic flight from Srinagar.
The serpent evaded capture by slipping into an air vent and could not be found even when staff unscrewed panels, opened all the doors and fumigated the plane.
"There was commotion, which scared the snake and it went further inside," the Hindustan Times quoted an airport official as saying.
Reports that the snake was a venomous cobra were denied by an airline spokesman.
"There was a snake but not a cobra. We have no details of what kind of a snake it was, or where it is now," he said.
He denied the jet had been grounded or that its flight to Mumbai had been delayed.
The incident echoed the plot of 2006 hit movie Snakes on a Plane.
