According to the account received by Bernard Heuvelmans, the photograph was taken in August 1959, on an undeterminated date, but at mid-day. The photo was taken from a helicopter returning to Kamina with pilot Colonel Remy Van Lierde DFC, Colonel Gheysen, parachutist Major Defebve DSO, and engineer Adjudant Kindt on board. The helicopter had been flying over a lightly-wooded shrub savannah approximately 100 km (60 miles) north north-west of Kamina. The average height of the vegetation was 2 m (6 ft), but gallery forests and thickets of trees were also present.
From around 125 m (400 ft) above the savannah, Gheysen noticed something resembling a very large moving tree trunk beside a destroyed termite mound. By the time Gheysen was able to adjust his microphone and inform Van Lierde, the helicopter, which was flying at 120 kmph (74 mph) had moved on by around a mile, but Van Lierde turned and flew back to the spot, where the "tree trunk" was found to be a large snake. Van Lierde flew lower and made several passes over the snake,[3] allowing Kindt, the only man on board with a camera, to take a single photograph. Concern regarding the helicopter's fuel level allegedly prevented the helicopter from remaining long enough for a second photograph.[1]
The local Katangans and Kasaians, who called pythons moma, reserved the special name pumina (French: poumina) for such giant specimens. A settler, Michel Vermersch, had reportedly once fled from a pumina around 175 km northwest of Kamina, on the Kamina-Luluabourg Railway.
The immediate size estimate of the four airmen was approximately 14 m (45 ft), with a triangular head 80 cm (2 ft) at its widest point.
https://cryptidarchives.fandom.com/wiki/Katanga_giant_snake_photo