NEW DELHI, INDIA - CREW on an Air India passenger jet discovered a snake coiled up under a seat and were unable to catch it as it slithered around the plane, the airline said on Thursday.

The snake was disturbed during a routine check on the Air India A319 aircraft, which had landed at Delhi airport after a domestic flight from Srinagar.

It evaded capture by slipping into an air vent and could not be found even when staff unscrewed panels inside the fuselage, opened all the doors and fumigated the plane.

'There was commotion which scared the snake and it went further inside,' an airport official was quoted as saying by the Hindustan Times.

Reports that the snake was a venomous cobra were denied by an Air India spokesman.

'The aircraft was parked at Delhi airport for maintenance purposes. There was a snake but not a cobra,' he said.

'We have no details of what kind of a snake it was, or where it is now. We have taken up this matter with Delhi airport authorities.'

He denied reports that the snake had caused the plane to be grounded or that its next flight, to Mumbai, had been delayed.

The incident, which occurred on Monday, echoed the plot of 2006 hit film Snakes on a Plane starring Samuel L Jackson and Julianna Margulies. -- AFP