A 13-year-old boy from Afghanistan risked his life by hiding in the landing gear of a passenger plane to travel 720 miles from Kabul to Delhi – and somehow survived.
The teen, from Kunduz city in northern Afghanistan, was discovered walking around unaccompanied on the runway at Delhi’s international airport after the flight landed on Monday.
Indian security officials apprehended him and interrogated him for many hours, and returned him to Kabul on the same aircraft.
He reportedly told authorities that he climbed the aircraft out of curiosity.
He had managed to board Kam Airlines flight RQ-4401 without being noticed, according to a spokesperson from the Indian Central Industrial Security Force.
Explaining how he managed to get there, the boy said he had found a hiding spot in the rear central landing gear compartment of the plane.
Airline staff later carried out a safety check and discovered a small red audio speaker had been left behind by the boy.
According to the Indian Express newspaper, he intended to travel to Iran. He did not realise that the particular flight he boarded was heading to India.
He reportedly slipped into the airport and followed behind a group of passengers before sneaking into the plane’s rear wheel well, where the landing gear can be found.
The boy is not the only one to risk his life as a stowaway on a plane.
A Kam Air aircraft at an international airport. The teen managed to board Kam Airlines flight RQ-4401 without being noticed after sneaking into the airport
In 2021, a 16-year-old boy from Kenya survived a flight from London to Maastricht after hiding in the landing gear area of the fuselage. He is said to have survived conditions of minus 30C during the journey.
However, most stowaways do not survive the journey, with their bodies later found by shocked crew members.
Earlier this year, the bodies of two teenagers, Jeik Anilus Lusi and Elvis Borques Castillo, were found in the landing gear of a JetBlue flight that had landed in Fort Lauderdale from New York.
Authorities only managed to confirm their identities through DNA testing months after their deaths.
In 2012, Jose Matada, a 26-year-old Mozambican man, died from severe injuries after falling from a Heathrow-bound flight from Angola. He fell onto a street in West London from the undercarriage of the aircraft.
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