In 1959, served as a Colonel in the Belgian Air Force at the Kamina airbase in Belgian occupied Congo, was surprised by the appearance of a giant snake during an air patrol in the Congo.
He had time to take pictures of the snake, and the picture has been confirmed as genuine without engineering by experts.
The length of the snake is estimated to be 13–16 meters. It is greenish in color, and the belly is white. Its mouth is triangular and its head alone is estimated to be 1 m x 0.6 m. All these measurements are made by comparing the size of the snake to the sizes of other objects on the ground.
If his estimations were accurate, would earn the creature a place amongst the largest snakes to have ever existed. When the helicopter tried to approach the snake, the snake raised its head to a height of 3 meters and prepared to peck if the helicopter got any closer.
Upon sighting the reptile, he had the pilot turn around and make another pass. at which the serpent reared up the frontal ten feet of its body head as if to strike, giving him the opportunity to observe its white underbelly.
However, after flying so low that Van Lierde believed it to have been within striking distance of his helicopter, he ordered the pilot to resume his journey, and so the creature was never properly documented, although some reports suggest that an onboard photographer managed to snap this shot of it.
What It Actually Could Be?
The strange creature is believed to be either a massively oversized African rock python, a new species of snake entirely, or perhaps a descendant of the giant Eocene snake Gigantophis.
Van Lierde was born on August 14th of 1915, in Overboelare, Belgium. He began his career in Belgian Airforce on September 16, 1935, as a fighter pilot who served during World War II in the Belgian and British Air Forces, shooting down six enemy aircraft and 44 V-1 flying bombs, and achieving the RAF rank of Squadron Leader.
Van Lierde was made Deputy Chief of Staff to the Ministre of Defense in 1954. In 1958 he became one of the first Belgians to break the sound barrier while test flying a Hawker Hunter at Dunsfold Aerodrome in England.
He returned to the Belgian Air Force after the war and went on to hold several important commands before retiring in 1968. He died on June 8th of 1990.
