A 13-year-old boy travelled from Afghanistan to India, hiding in the wheel of a Kam Air passenger plane.
By some miracle, the teenager survived the flight from Kabul to Delhi, which lasts two hours and a half, after climbing into the landing gear compartment.
Indian security personnel detained him not long after the jet landed at 11am on Sunday.
Dressed in a white kurta pajama, the stowaway was spotted by staff wandering around on the runway at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport.
The boy reportedly told authorities that he hid on the plane out of curiosity.
Apart from a small red-coloured audio speaker, he did not carry any luggage.
The Indian Express reported that he wanted to travel to Iran, but did not know that the flight he entered was bound for Delhi.
According to the newspaper, the boy sneaked into the Kabul airport, trailed a group of passengers, and stowed away in the aircraft’s rear wheel well.
A statement from the Indian Central Industrial Security Force (CISF): ‘Upon inquiry, it turned out that he hid in the rear central landing gear compartment (rear wheel well) of the aircraft.
‘He is from Kunduz city, Afghanistan.
‘Subsequently, an aircraft security check was conducted by the airline’s security and engineering staff, during which a small red-coloured audio speaker was found in the rear landing gear area.’
He has since been returned to Afghanistan on the same passenger plane that he travelled on to Delhi.
The survival rate for plane stowaways, primarily from landing gear compartments, is extremely low.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) data showing a fatality rate of around 75-77% for documented cases since 1947.
The primary causes of death are hypothermia from the freezing temperatures, lack of oxygen, and being crushed by landing gear mechanisms.
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