Airline passenger tries to “artfully conceal” python in hard drive

MIAMI — A passenger heading to Barbados was stopped on Sunday for attempting to sneak a snake on a plane, CBS Miami reports. The passenger tried to “artfully conceal the snake inside the electronics of a hard drive, which was placed in a checked bag,” said Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents at Miami International Airport.

After baggage screening detected what the agency described as an “organic mass,” a TSA bomb expert was called to investigate the inside of the electronic component where the baby python was found. TSA said the “interception prevented a possible wildlife threat on an aircraft.”

“Animals of many species have been known to escape and chew through wires with fatal results,” the agency said.

The TSA said in an Instagram post that the python “had not gone full monty.”

“It was wearing a nylon stocking.”

The passenger did not embark on the flight to the Caribbean island, and neither did the snake. The snake was impounded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and TSA said the passenger would be fined.