Etc.

Not your average emergency

How would you like to be piloting a plane by yourself only to discover an unexpected passenger on board – a gray rat snake? That was the unusual predicament Dr. Ed Carruth, a pilot of many years, found himself in while flying a single-seater over Mississippi. The snake got Carruth's attention by licking his arm. Although it's not uncommon to find a snake looking for mice in an airplane hangar, Carruth wasn't prepared to deal with one in the cockpit. With no broom or stick to brush it away, he initially tried to shoo the unwanted stowaway out the door. "But then I thought about some poor farmer down there on the the ground," the considerate pilot told the Daily Leader, southeast Mississippi's Internet news service. "Can you imagine if a snake just fell out of the sky at you?" Carruth instead did some aerobatics, whereupon the snake went to the back of the plane. After landing, a snake expert was called to collect the snake and release it into the wild.