Snake on a plane: 1.2m-long boa constrictor found in luggage in US

First there was a cat, then a dog, and now a snake's been found in a passenger's luggage attempting to board a flight in the US.

The surprising find was made by officers after a traveller's carry-on luggage was screened at Tampa International Airport, in Florida, last month, Transport Security Administration (TSA) spokesperson Lisa Farbstein said on Twitter.

The woman claimed the 1.2m-long snake, named Bartholomew, was her "emotional support pet", she said.

"TSA notified the airline, which ruled that there was not going to be a snake on their plane!"

The TSA said on Saturday that the officers who made the discovery "didn’t find this hyssssssterical".

"We really have no adder-ation for discovering any pet going through an x-ray machine.

"Do you have asp-irations of taking a snake on a plane? Don’t get upsetti spaghetti by not understanding your airline’s rules.

"For instance, airlines don’t allow nope ropes in carry-on bags and only a few allow them to slither around in checked bags, if packaged correctly."

It comes after a cat was found trapped in a traveller's suitcase at John F. Kennedy (JFK) International Airport, in New York, in November.

"The cat did not belong to the individual with the suitcase, it belonged to someone else in the household," Farbstein said at the time.

The orange feline was rescued unharmed after it appeared in an x-ray.

Two weeks later, a dog was found inside a backpack at the Dane County Regional Airport in Madison, Wisconsin.