Danny,
I well remember as an Aircraft Ground Engineer on the C130 circa 1990 doing a Belize schedule, and, on the morning of departure whilst entering the nose gear bay to remove the nose gear locking pin, was horrified to find some serpentine beast wrapped around the nose leg. Backing out, I alerted the Captain, and as always reverted to "awaiting further orders" mode. Well, long story short, after around four hours, a local expert was found who removed the snake without trouble, luckily we had time within crew duty hours to make Dulles (Washington) for the scheduled nightstop. Somehow, during the rest of my time as a GE, whenever I entered the nose wheel bay, I always did it with a feeling of trepidation. I really can't imagine an "in flight" viper on the loose.
Smudge
