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Snakes On A Plane: As a small airliner crashed into a house, killing a British pilot and 19 others after a crocodile smuggled into the aircraft in a sports bag escaped & started a panic. The plane came down, despite no apparent mechanical problems, during an internal flight in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It has now emerged that the crash was caused by a concealed reptile escaping and causing a stampede in the cabin, throwing the aircraft off-balance. A lone survivor apparently relayed the bizarre tale to investigators. The crocodile survived the crash, only to be dispatched with a blow from a machete. Danny Philemotte, the Belgian pilot and 62-year-old owner of the plane's operator, Filair, struggled in vain with the controls, with Chris Wilson, his 39-year-old First Officer from Shurdington, near Cheltenham, Glocs. The plane was on a routine flight from the capital, Kinshasa, to the regional airport at Bandundu when the incident unfolded, on August 25. It crashed into a house just a few hundred feet from its destination. The occupants of the property were outside at the time. According to the inquiry report & testimony of the only survivor, the crash happened because of a panic sparked by the escape of a crocodile hidden in a sports bag. One of the passengers had hidden the animal, which he planned to sell, in a big sports bag, from which the reptile escaped as the plane began its descent into Bandundu. A report of the incident said: "The terrified air hostess hurried towards the cockpit, followed by the passengers." The plane was then sent off-balance "despite the desperate efforts of the pilot", said the report. The plane was a Czech-made Let L-410 Turbolet, one of more than 1,100 produced as short-range transport aircraft & used mainly for passenger services. A tragedy.
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