Snakes On A Plane – the 2006 mid-air action thriller movie – is anyone's nightmare and something similar happened on a domestic flight in Mexico. But not to the extent as shown in the film.

To the passengers and crew members' surprise, a poisonous green viper was spotted dangling from the overhead storage bin of the flight bound to Mexico City. The flight made a priority landing so that animal control could take the reptile away.

On Sunday (6 November), the green snake was spotted in the overhead storage compartment and a passenger named Indalecio Medina was quick film the incident on his phone. He later posted the footage on his Twitter account. "I was reading a magazine and the passenger next to me saw it and, 'Oh my word'," he told The Associated Press adding that the snake was around 3ft long.

Soon after the creature was spotted, passengers of flight 231 alerted cabin crew. Another video of the incident that surfaced on YouTube shows passengers remained calm.

"It was a frightening situation ... but people remained calm because it didn't get out of that space and nobody became hysterical. Some people got up to see what kind of reptile it was, but nobody got carried away," Medina said.

He reportedly captured the reptile using a blanket and handed it over to animal control after the plane landed in Mexico City. The flight was allowed to land on priority. Aeromexico is currently investigating the incident.

After a thorough search, no other snakes were found on the flight. And Medina said that the journey was a "unique experience".