Snakes On A Plane: Cobra Forces Plane Into Emergency Landing

Passengers on an Egypt Air flight to Kuwait became the unwilling participants in an all-too-real version of the action thriller Snakes on a Plane this week, after a cobra escaped from one man's hand luggage. The plane that had taken off from Cairo was forced to make an emergency landing in the Egyptian resort town of Al Ghardaqa on the Red Sea after the serpent bit the 48-year-old Jordanian that had smuggled it on board, the Jordan Times reported.The passenger, who owns a reptile shop in Kuwait, hid the Egyptian cobra in a carry-on bag but it managed to escape down the passenger aisle, an Egypt Air official told the newspaper.

Doctors told the passenger he should spend 24 hours in a hospital for observation, but the man refused, the Egyptian Air official said, according to The Jordan Times.

Egyptian cobras are commonly found across North Africa.

According to wildlife experts, the cobra's venom is so deadly it can kill a full-grown elephant in three hours or a person in about 15 minutes. The venom destroys nerve tissue and causes paralysis and death because of respiratory failure.

Legend has it that in ancient times, the Egyptian queen Cleopatra used an Egyptian cobra -- also known as an asp -- to commit suicide.

CNN