Rattlesnakes and scorpions are invading Qantas planes grounded in a California desert amid the pandemic – but the airline employees have a trick up their sleeves to stay clear of the wrath of the venomous creatures whilst carrying out weekly upkeep. Since the commence of the pandemic and the travel restrictions it imposed, thousands of planes have been grounded by airlines across the world. “While the dry heat and low humidity of the California desert makes it the ideal storage facility for aircraft, it is also the ideal environment for the highly venomous Mojave rattlesnakes and scorpions,” Australia’s Qantas Airways mentioned in a statement published on their web-site.
The airline revealed that engineers tasked with keeping the A380s that are presently parked in deep storage have come up with a low-tech but productive way to steer clear of Mojave rattlesnakes and scorpions that are generally located in the wheel wells and tyres of the grounded aircrafts – they use a broom manage to scare them away.
“Every aircraft has its own designated ‘wheel whacker’ (a repurposed broom handle) as part of the engineering kit, complete with each aircraft’s registration written on it,” mentioned Qantas Manager for Engineering in Los Angeles, Tim Heywood.
“The first thing we do before we unwrap and start any ground inspections of the landing gear in particular is to walk around the aircraft stomping our feet and tapping the wheels with a wheel whacker to wake up and scare off the snakes,” mentioned Mr Heywood. “That’s about making sure no harm comes to our engineers or the snakes.”
The Qantas Manager for Engineering mentioned that the region is nicely-identified for its “feisty ‘rattlers’ who love to curl up around the warm rubber tyres and in the aircraft wheels and brakes” – and engineers have encountered a handful of of these snakes and also some scorpions.
“We’ve encountered a few rattle snakes and also some scorpions, but the wheel whacker does its job and they scuttle off. It’s a unique part of looking after these aircraft while they’re in storage and it’s another sign of how strange the past year has been,” mentioned Mr Heywood.
Mojave rattlesnake is a extremely venomous pit viper species located in the deserts of the southwestern United States and central Mexico. Their venom attacks the nervous method more strongly than that of other rattlesnakes, according to Encyclopedia Britannica, and can lead to vision difficulties, respiratory problems and even death if left untreated.
According to CNN, more than two-thirds of the world’s airplanes have been grounded at the height of the pandemic. Qantas reportedly parked about a dozen of its A380s in an airfield in Victorville, outdoors Los Angeles.