CAIRO: Egypt Air has denied news reports claiming that a snake has attacked a passenger boarding its Saturday flight from Cairo to Kuwait.
The Egyptian national carrier released a statement on Sunday denouncing the reports as “baseless,” noting that there had been a similar incident on the airliner back in 2012.
Several news outlets in Egypt have quoted a Kuwaiti newspaper report that published a video alleging to show a snake hanging from the plane’s ceiling.
The report by Kuwait’s Al-Anba Newspaper claimed the reptile had bitten a passenger on board, forcing the plane en route to Kuwait to revert back to Egypt for an emergency landing at Hurghada airport, about an hour after taking off.
Al-Anba alleged a number of passengers were surprised by the presence of a “poisonous Cobra on the plane, which caused fear and panic. It also reported one passenger was stabbed before they succeeded in killing the snake.
In a statement, Egypt Air urged all media outlets to rely on the company’s official statements regarding issues similar to this incident.