Associated Press is reporting that physician Dr. Ed Carruth, flying himself across Mississippi in a one-seat plane, discovered a stowaway gray rat snake when it began ”licking” his arm Thursday.

”I’ve been flying planes for 50 years and over 14,000 hours, and this is the most unusual in-flight emergency I’ve encountered. I guess it wasn’t exactly an emergency, but I did almost hurt myself when I saw it. … Idid some aerobatics. And once he got oriented, he went to the back of the plane."

The story says that when Carruth arrived at Brookhaven Municipal Airport after his flight from Meridian, officials called snake expert Joey Pradillo to remove the reptile and released it into the wild.