Narrative:

Aircraft X was pulled out of service for a report from a passenger that a 2 to 3 inch snake crawled across her foot. I received a call later that afternoon from a mechanic assigned to accomplish [the maintenance check] to look for the snake. The mechanic has no knowledge of snakes and the paperwork assigned to do the task does not support anything on that level; I asked him not to go on the aircraft until we could receive some help from someone trained on how to handle snakes in the event that we did find one. I then called the manager on duty and asked him to try to get a hold of someone on duty at the airport that can help just like we do with pest control. The supervisor on duty took the paperwork from the mechanic and did the job himself; saying; that every [mechanic] refused to accomplish the job. I believe this behavior was dangerous and reckless not only was he putting someone in danger but also himself.the reason the aircraft was taken out of service was because the write up was taken seriously; the [maintenance check] is a pest control phase inspect and monitor card; the pest that the mechanic was going to look for was out of the normal; we need to put a little more thought on how we approach things of this nature so we can keep ourselves and our passengers safe. Everyday all types of things are brought on board the aircraft without anyones knowledge and our aircraft travel and sit overnight with lots of time for anything to welcome itself on board; in a nutshell we need to ask for the right help when needed no matter how small it appears to be.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Maintenance reported their Supervisor improperly handled an inspection involving a snake on the plane.

Narrative: Aircraft X was pulled out of service for a report from a passenger that a 2 to 3 inch snake crawled across her foot. I received a call later that afternoon from a mechanic assigned to accomplish [the maintenance check] to look for the snake. The mechanic has no knowledge of snakes and the paperwork assigned to do the task does not support anything on that level; I asked him not to go on the aircraft until we could receive some help from someone trained on how to handle snakes in the event that we did find one. I then called the manager on duty and asked him to try to get a hold of someone on duty at the airport that can help just like we do with pest control. The supervisor on duty took the paperwork from the mechanic and did the job himself; saying; that every [mechanic] refused to accomplish the job. I believe this behavior was dangerous and reckless not only was he putting someone in danger but also himself.The reason the aircraft was taken out of service was because the write up was taken seriously; the [maintenance check] is a pest control phase inspect and monitor card; the pest that the mechanic was going to look for was out of the normal; we need to put a little more thought on how we approach things of this nature so we can keep ourselves and our passengers safe. Everyday all types of things are brought on board the aircraft without anyones knowledge and our aircraft travel and sit overnight with lots of time for anything to welcome itself on board; in a nutshell we need to ask for the right help when needed no matter how small it appears to be.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.