MSNBC’s Test Pattern ran this story a few weeks ago discussing the Snakes on a Plane phenomenon. Clearly someone over there is a big fan because on Friday they posted another story which pointed us to yet another story, this one at the Honolulu Star-Bulletin from 1997. The Honolulu Star-Bulletin story describes the canine efforts to prevent snakes from the entering the country on a plane:

Security officials from McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas said they have caught people trying to bring snakes on airplanes, but that the situations are rare.

Once snakes get on the plane, Hawaii agriculture inspectors rely on “the honor system” with declaration forms, Cravalho said…

For example, snake-sniffing beagles mostly patrol the baggage-claim areas of United and Amercian airlines. And the dogs will only sniff bags that are on the ground. People are never searched.

“We can’t hassle the tourists,” Cravalho said.

Flights from Guam, home of the brown tree snake, are still top priority. These planes are federally inspected, too.

I, myself, am a big fan of the honor system. I also want to point out this news story from the Orlando Weekly in 1998:

Zoo skies ahead

In October, according to medical tests, Khyl Hardy, 6, was bitten by a poisonous taipan snake, and he and his mother say it happened when he reached under his seat on an Ansett Airlines flight from Melbourne, Australia, to Perth to retrieve a lollipop he had dropped and felt a sting. (The snake was not found.)

The skies may never be safe from the constant scourge of Snakes on a Plane.