Passengers traveling on Aeromexico Flight 231a commercial flight in Mexico might have felt they had somehow ended up in the Hollywood nightmare movie "Snakes on a Plane". A passenger noticed, then took a video of, a snake slithering along the overhead storage bins. The snake then dangled from the cabin ceiling before falling down into the cabin in the seating area.

The plane was still in flight. However a Texas newspaper says that "flight attendants notified the pilot, who organized an emergency landing at the plane's destination. " The airline concerned, Aeromexico, released a statement to The Associated Press confirming that the plane was given priority landing in Mexico City, where workers then "secured the reptile".

The unwelcome surprise came on a flight to Mexico City from Torreon in Mexico's north. The flight is flown on an Embraer E190 aircraft, according to Aeromexico's website. It is hard to tell from the video exactly how big the snake was, though a report in the Houston Chronicle said it was about 1.5m long. Some reporters thought the snake was a venomous green viper.

The passenger who took the video, Mr Medina, said that passengers hurried to unbuckle their seat belts so they could get themselves clear of the dangling snake before it dropped to the floor. Then people trapped it between rows 5 and 6 with blankets provided by a flight attendant, Mr Medina added.

Passengers exited out the rear, and animal control workers came on board to take the stowaway into custody. "The procedures carried out for this flight are currently being evaluated to determine how the animal entered the cabin and measures have been taken to avoid such incidents in the future, " Aeromexico said.