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Get you up to speed: Snake on Japan Airlines plane causes flight to be cancelled in first of its kind incident | News World
A snake measuring 40cm was found on a Japan Air Commuter plane at Fukuoka airport, resulting in the flight’s cancellation. The reptile was discovered by a mechanic under the aircraft carpet as the crew prepared for departure.
Japan Airlines is conducting a thorough investigation to determine how the snake accessed the aircraft, as they stated there has never been a previous incident of this nature. The flight from Fukuoka airport to Kagoshima prefecture was cancelled shortly before its scheduled departure at 1pm on Monday.
Japan Airlines stated, “As far as we can determine, there has never been a case of a snake getting into the cabin,” and expressed regret for the inconvenience caused to passengers. Following the incident, a wildlife control expert conducted a 24-hour search, confirming that the 40cm snake is likely harmless and has ties to the wild.
What remains unclear — It is not known how the snake managed to enter the cabin of the Japan Airlines plane.
Snake found on Japan Airlines plane prompts cancellation of flight

A snake was found on a Japan Airlines flight (Picture: James Matsumoto/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
A snake managed to sneak aboard a plane in Japan, leaving officials baffled as to where it came from.
The creature’s unexpected appearance resulted in a flight being cancelled and a 24-hour hunt by a wildlife control expert.
Measuring 40cm long, the non-venomous reptile was discovered on a Japan Air Commuter plane while the crew were preparing for departure.
According to Kyodo News, a mechanic at Fukuoka airport found the snake under the aircraft carpet at around 1pm on Monday.
The flight was due to take off for the Kagoshima prefecture around that time, having landed from the Izumo airport earlier that day.
It’s unclear exactly how the snake got into the cabin, with no similar incident having happened before.
‘As far as we can determine, there has never been a case of a snake getting into the cabin,’ Japan Airlines said in a statement. ‘We are sorry for the inconvenience caused to passengers.’

The flight from Fukuoka airport was cancelled(Picture: Getty Images)
It was determined that the snake was likely from the wild but completely harmless.
In 2019, a man accidentally carried a snake on board on a flight from Florida after it slithered into his rucksack.
When he arrived at his rental property in Pukalani, Maui, the 20-year-old realised he’d brought a guest in the form of a 30 cm-long black racer snake.
AirAsia has had an instance of a snake in the cabin before, with a flight rerouted in 2022 after the pale yellow reptile was spotted along the lighting panel.
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‘Cheer up, you caught the bad guy,’ says killer Virginia McCullough as she is arrested for murdering her parents
A woman who murdered her parents “in cold blood” before hiding them in makeshift tombs for four years told officers to “cheer up, you caught the bad guy” as she was arrested in her home.
Virginia McCullough, 36, poisoned her father John McCullough, 70, with prescription medication and fatally stabbed her mother Lois McCullough, 71, shortly afterwards in 2019.
She ran up large debts on credit cards in her parents’ names and after their deaths, she continued to spend their pensions until she was finally caught in 2023.
In body-worn video footage released by police, a handcuffed – and eerily calm – McCullough told officers: “I did know that this would kind of come eventually.
“It’s proper that I serve my punishment.”
She said she had slipped something into her father’s drink then put his body under a bed on the ground floor, and put her mother’s body in an upstairs wardrobe.
McCullough, having been arrested on suspicion of double murder, told an officer: “Cheer up, at least you’ve caught the bad guy.”
She added: “I know I don’t seem 100% evil.”
At the police station, she told officers where a kitchen knife was, which she described as a “murder weapon”, and a hammer which she said “will still have blood on it”.
McCullough, of Pump Hill, Chelmsford, Essex, was sentenced to life imprisonment on Friday with a minimum term of 36 years at Chelmsford Crown Court, after she admitted to their murders between 17 and 20 June 2019 at an earlier hearing at the same court.
Chelmsford Crown Court heard how she hid their bodies in makeshift tombs at the family home in Great Baddow in Essex, then told persistent lies to cover her tracks.
The court heard she cancelled family arrangements and frequently told doctors and relatives her parents were unwell, on holiday or away on lengthy trips.
But concerns over Mr and Mrs McCullough’s welfare were raised in September 2023 by a GP at their registered practice, and Essex County Council’s safeguarding team referred these to police.
The GP had not seen the couple for some time and said Mr McCullough had failed to collect medication and attend scheduled appointments. It was found McCullough had frequently cancelled appointments, using a range of excuses to explain her father’s absence.
Police said a missing persons investigation was initially launched and McCullough lied to officers, claiming her parents were travelling and would be returning in October.
It became a murder investigation, and when officers forced entry to the house in Pump Hill on September 15 2023, McCullough confessed that her parents’ bodies were in the house and that she had killed them.
Nicola Rice, a specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “McCullough callously and viciously killed both of her parents before concealing their bodies in makeshift tombs within their home address.
“She spent the next four years manipulating and lying to family members, medical staff, financial institutions, and the police, spending her parents’ money and accruing large debts in their name.”
She added: “This was a truly disturbing case, which has left behind it a trail of devastation, and I can only hope that the sentence passed today will help those who loved and cared for Lois and John begin to heal.”
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Defense alliance NATO chief Mark Rutte has met US President-elect Donald Trump to discuss global security issues, according to a NATO spokesperson.
The meeting took place in Palm Beach, Florida.
During his first term as US president, 2017-2020, Trump pushed for European NATO countries to spend more on defense and described the alliance’s cost-sharing as unfair to the US.
Rutte took over as NATO chief from Norwegian Jens Stoltenberg in November.
Before taking office in January, Trump has nominated Pete Hegseth for the post of defense secretary, which has raised eyebrows among many allies.
Hegseth, 44, has served as an infantry captain in Iraq and Afghanistan, but has no senior military or government officer experience.
Multiple missiles were fired in an airstrike towards a densely populated part of Lebanon’s capital early on Saturday.
The huge airstrike targeted Beirut’s Basta neighbourhood, and no prior warnings were given by the Israeli military. The largely residential area was struck last month.
At least one violent explosion was heard across the city, Reuters witnesses said, and plumes of smoke could be seen. Scenes of massive destruction at the site were shared online, including a massive crater in the ground.
“Beirut, the capital, woke up to a horrific massacre, as the Israeli enemy’s air force completely destroyed an eight-story residential building with five missiles on Al-Mamoun Street in Basta,” the state-run National News Agency reported.
The health ministry put the initial death toll at four, with 23 wounded. The number is expected to climb in the coming hours as search and rescue efforts continue.
It came after a long day of Israeli airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, which have been non-stop since last week.
The cross-border fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group escalated into a full-blown war in mid-September.
Israel has bombed southern Lebanon, Beirut’s southern suburbs and the eastern Beqaa region, and has sent ground troops across the border. Hezbollah has continued to fire rockets deeper into Israel.
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