Here’s one for “Ripley’s Believe It Or Not.”
A crocodile apparently caused a plane crash that killed 20 people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo back in August. investigators originally thought that the plane had run out of fuel.
The only survivor of the tragedy has told investigators that a crocodile that one passenger had hidden in a gym bag and brought onboard suddenly escaped. That caused a panic and stampede in the plane, which made the aircraft off-balance and crash not far from the regional airport it was heading to.
The reptile escaped while the plane was descending. The aircraft had been en route from the capital of Kinshasa to a regional airport in Bandundu the day of the accident, Aug. 25.
The survivor said that the plane’s stewardess and its passengers ran toward the cockpit when they saw the crocodile, and the pilot of the Let L-410 Turbolet lost control.
Ironically, the crocodile survived the crash, but was done in by a machete.