Snake discovered on United flight from Florida to New Jersey

A snake was discovered Monday on board a United Airlines passenger flight from Tampa Bay to Newark, New Jersey, officials said. The non-venomous snake was removed from the plane by airport staff after the flight landed in Newark.

United confirmed to CBS News that after “being alerted” to the snake’s presence by passengers, the crew “called the appropriate authorities to take care of the situation.”

It’s unclear exactly when the snake was spotted. When United Flight 2038 landed at Newark Liberty International Airport at 1:15 p.m. local time, workers with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, as well as the airport’s wildlife operations staff, boarded the plane and removed the snake, the Port Authority told CBS News in a statement. There were no reported injuries.

It was later released into the wild, the Port Authority said. It was determined to be a garter snake. There was no word on how it may have gotten onto the plane.

Garter snakes are non-venomous and can be anywhere from 20 to 30 inches in length, according to the National Park Service.

Back in February, an AirAsia passenger flight in Malaysia, bound from Kuala Lumpur to Tawau, was forced to divert to Kuching after a snake was spotted in the overhead lights.