After 9/11 Shut Down US Skies, One Jet Flew Antivenom to Save Snakebite Victim
One antivenom flight flew after 9/11 grounding.
In the tense and chaotic aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, when the United States grounded all civilian air traffic nationwide for the first time in the nation's history, a single exception was made: a flight was authorized to carry rare, life-saving snake antivenom across the country to save a Miami snake handler fighting for his life. The episode remains one of the more extraordinary footnotes of that day, illustrating how emergency medical necessity carved out a narrow exception even amid an unprecedented, nationwide shutdown of American skies. Lawrence Van Sertima, a veteran snake handler with roughly four decades of experience, was bitten on the thumb by an inland taipan — widely regarded as the most venomous snake in the world — on the afternoon of September 11, while attempting to place the reptile back into its cage.
He reportedly knew immediately that he was in serious trouble, given the taipan's reputation for producing venom capable of killing an adult human within a short window if left untreated. With commercial and private air traffic grounded and helicopters unable to fly due to the unfolding national emergency, Van Sertima had to be transported by road instead, a journey that took roughly 40 minutes to reach Miami's Baptist Hospital. His condition deteriorated rapidly once there; within hours he was in critical condition, reportedly bleeding from his eyes and mouth as the venom began attacking his blood, muscles, kidneys and heart.
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue's specialized "Venom 1" unit, which maintained one of the largest antivenom stockpiles in the country, initially administered a limited supply of polyvalent antivenin. This helped stabilize Van Sertima temporarily but was not a targeted treatment for taipan venom specifically. Doctors soon determined he urgently needed a monovalent antivenom manufactured specifically to counter taipan bites — a treatment stocked in only two locations in the entire country at the time: New York and San Diego. With New York effectively ruled out given its proximity to the attacks and the security lockdown surrounding the city, rescue officials turned instead to the San Diego Zoo, which held a small reserve of the specific antivenom needed.
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Securing permission to fly was no small task, given that the entire national airspace had been shut down by federal order. After more than six hours of negotiation with aviation authorities, the Federal Aviation Administration granted special clearance in the early hours of September 12. A Learjet 36, piloted by John Rapis and operated by Chrysler Aviation, departed San Diego that morning carrying the antivenom, escorted by two fighter jets for the entire transcontinental journey — a highly unusual arrangement reflecting the extraordinary security posture of the country in the immediate aftermath of the attacks. The aircraft landed in Miami later that day, at the time reportedly the only nonmilitary plane operating anywhere in North American airspace.
Within roughly 45 minutes of the antivenom's arrival, it was administered to Van Sertima, using the additional vials brought from San Diego alongside what remained of the earlier polyvalent antivenin. He began to recover soon afterward, and doctors credited the timely delivery with saving his life. Van Sertima survived the ordeal and went on to live for more than two decades afterward, eventually relocating and stepping away from handling venomous snakes, before passing away in March 2024.
The story of Van Sertima's rescue has resurfaced periodically in the years since, circulating widely on social media and in retrospectives on the September 11 attacks, sometimes accompanied by exaggerated claims that it was the only civilian flight permitted anywhere in the country that week. While that broader claim has been disputed by fact-checkers, the core details of the mercy flight — the antivenom, the fighter jet escort, and the extraordinary FAA clearance — have been independently verified through contemporary hospital and rescue accounts, cementing the episode as a striking human story amid the broader tragedy of that period.
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