"No Matter What Happens, Fly The Plane"

Monty Coles was more than a bit surprised when he spotted a snake peering at him from behind the instrument panel of his Piper Cherokee while on a cross country flight last weekend.

"Nothing in any of the manuals ever described anything like this," the 62-year-old Cross Lanes, WV resident said. But the advice given 25 years earlier from his flight instructor immediately came to mind: "No matter what happens, fly the plane," Coles told the Associated Press.

This isn't a scene from an upcoming movie, but a real-time adventure.

Coles earlier left Charleston for a cross-country flight over the West Virginia countryside last Saturday in his Piper Cherokee, and was cruising to Gallipolis, OH at 3,000 feet when the snake revealed itself.

Coles was able to eventually grab the four-and-a-half-foot snake with one hand, but at first it was a fight. An attempt to swat the snake drove it to other side of the cockpit, where it hid behind the rudder pedals. Engrossed in a struggle, Coles decided that it was better to get a firm grip on the situation. While maintaining control of his aircraft with one hand, Coles reached down and grabbed the snake behind its head with his other hand.

"There was no way I was letting that thing go. It coiled all around my arm, and its tail grabbed hold of a lever on the floor and started pulling," he said.

Coles then radioed the Gallipolis tower, asking clearance for an emergency landing.

"They came back and asked what my problem was. I told them I had one hand full of snake and the other hand full of plane. They cleared me in."

After making a smooth landing, Coles made the best of the situation by posing with the reptile for photographs and then let the snake go.

"That snake resides in Ohio now," Coles said. "I wasn't about to bring it home. I don't mind snakes, but I sure like to know where they are."

Coles stated that he was glad he was flying solo, and that his usual flight companions, his wife and their dachshund" Killer" may have complicated the situation.

"I don't know what would have happened if they had been on this flight," Coles said. " I might not have had a wife, my plane or myself. It sure would have been a lot more exciting if Killer had been onboard."

FMI: www.faa.gov/pilots/training/