Snake clings to wing of Qantas plane. WARNING: Some viewers may find this footage distressing YouTube / Oldplantation.co

The comparisons with Snakes on a Plane, the movie, were inevitable.

Stunned Qantas Airways passengers watched out of their windows as a large scrub python clung to a plane's wing during a two-hour flight from Australia's north-eastern city of Cairns to Papua New Guinea.

The 3-metre (10ft) python fought to stay on the plane, pulling itself forward only to be pushed back by the frigid high-altitude wind, as cold as -12C.

Passenger Robert Weber videotaped the struggle and told Australia's Fairfax Media that the wind whipped the snake against the side of the plane until it was killed, leaving a bloody smear.

The python was still attached when the plane landed in Port Moresby but a Qantas spokesman said it was dead on arrival.

The 2006 Hollywood thriller Snakes on a Plane starred Samuel L Jackson and the plot needs little elaboration.

Snake experts said scrub pythons were known to hide in confined spaces to wait for prey and this might have been how it ended up inside the wing.