Wheel-well stowaways

Armando hospitalized

Disillusioned with the oppression of the Cuban regime, friends Armando Socarras and Jorge Perez Blanco felt their only way to freedom was to stowaway in the wheel well of a DC-8 jet bound for Madrid. The boys planned their departure for weeks and on June 3, 1969, executed their plan. They wore rubber-soled shoes to aid them in crawling up the wheels of the jet and carried ropes to secure themselves inside the wheel well. After the plane took off, Armando was almost crushed by the wheels as they folded into the compartment where he was hiding. With temperatures at -41 degrees Fahrenheit and the oxygen thinning, he drifted in and out of consciousness, unsure about what had happened to his friend. When the plane landed in Madrid, Armando plopped out onto the tarmac. His clothes were frozen and his temperature was so low that it didn't register on the thermometer, but he was alive. And free. Jorge didn't fare as well – he was believed to have been knocked down by the jet blast and imprisoned in Cuba or may have fallen to his death.

A similar tragic case in 1970

In October 1996, a couple in pub garden spotted a body falling from a DC-9 as it approached London's Heathrow airport. 19-year-old stowaway Vijay Saini was already dead when he fell 2000 feet. His brother, Pardeep, somehow survived the 10-hour journey from Delhi to London in temperatures of minus 60 degrees Celsius and winds six times stronger than a hurricane as the British Airways jet cruised at 35,000 feet. Pardeep told authorities he and his brother were forced to leave after being linked to Sikh militants and found a man in Delhi who said he would help them – for a price. The man convinced them they could access the baggage hold from the wheel well of a plane and fly safely. Once inside, they realized that was impossible, but the plane had already started to move. Moments after take-off, the screaming, terrified brothers were pinned opposite corners of the wheel house. Pardeep passed out and didn't come to until the plane reached Heathrow. In that time, Vijay likely began to hallucinate from lack of oxygen as his body temperature dipped to fatal levels. When the captain opened the landing gear doors, Vijay simply fell from the sky. Pardeep woke up and staggered onto the tarmac barely able to speak. He was rushed to the hospital with severe hypothermia. The pilot, Captain Post, later wrote to Pardeep and congratulated him on his "near-miraculous survival." He said, "I hope that in the future I may have the pleasure of carrying you as a legitimate passenger on the INSIDE of the airplane."

Not much is known about Tahitian stowaway Fidel Maruhi, a man who survived a 4000-mile, 7½-hour journey from Papeete to Los Angeles in the wheel well of an Air France Jet in 2000. When Maruhi was discovered on a refueling stopover in Los Angeles, his body temperature was at 79 degrees, six degrees colder than what's considered fatal. Maruhi, who initially took the trip to meet his favorite footballer Zinedine Zidane, was sent back to Tahiti and remembers nothing of the journey, having blacked out just after takeoff.

While the exact details of what caused him to flee his native country are unknown, Victor Alvarez Molina tucked himself inside the landing gear of an airplane leaving Havana for Montreal after his wife called him at work warning him of trouble in 2002. Molina was ill-prepared against the freezing temperatures that reached minus 55 degrees Fahrenheit as the plane reached cruising altitude. For four hours, he clutched a photo of his daughter and prayed. Soon deprived of oxygen and becoming hypothermic, his saving grace was a broken compartment pipe which seeped out warm air and provided a convenient lifeline when the landing gear deployed. Once on the ground, Molina was treated for hypothermia and granted refugee status by the Canadian government.

How the stowaway made it to the UK

In 2010 a stowaway hid in the undercarriage of a jumbo jet and survived temperatures of -41 Celsius at 25,000ft during a free flight into Britain. The jobless Romanian crouched in the rear-wheel compartment during an extraordinary 800-mile trip from Vienna to London on a Boeing 747 owned by the Dubai royal family. When the privately owned Boeing landed at Heathrow, the 20-year-old stowaway tumbled on to the runway and was arrested by security staff. He said he had come to Britain to find work, was examined by paramedics but incredibly suffered only a few bruises and was fit enough to be interviewed by police and immigration officials.

Less than 24 hours later, he was released after accepting a police caution for being a stowaway and - because he is an EU national and proved his identity - was allowed to stay in Britain. A police source said: 'The plane would normally have flown at 37,000ft which would have killed him but it was flying lower because of thunder-storms. 'This, and the fact it was a short-haul flight, meant he survived. He's had a free flight and been released for his troubles. Welcome to England.'

The Romanian reportedly slipped under a perimeter fence at Vienna Airport on Sunday evening and made his way to a private jet owned by the Dubai royal family. He told police he climbed into the wheel compartment of the plane, which took off at about 7pm UK time. One hour and 37minutes later, it landed at Heathrow. Sources said the man fell or jumped soon after the aircraft touched down and was arrested at 8.48pm for stowing away on an aircraft, contrary to Article 143 of the Air Navigation Order 2009, which carries a maximum sentence of a £2,500 fine. He was taken to Heathrow police station but because he was apparently of previous good character, he was given a police caution and released from custody. The man was carrying ID and immigration officials were satisfied he was Romanian and entitled to stay. Home Office sources confirmed there were no immigration issues and that the UK Border Agency was not seeking to deport him.

The Sheikh who owns the plane has reportedly threatened legal action against Vienna airport officials. Vienna airport spokesman Peter Kleemann said: 'This is the first time we have ever had a case like this.' He said the man said 'he had had enough of Vienna and wanted to go somewhere else where he might find work'.

Vienna police spokesman Leo Lauber added: 'We are investigating, this is a high security area, we don't know how this could have happened. He claims he just climbed under the fence and then found a place on board the first aircraft he saw.' Mr Lauber admitted the ten miles of fencing around the airport perimeter are not constantly patrolled. The Austrian interior ministry begun an inquiry into the security breach. But a spokesman added that individual airlines should be responsible for their own security.

Daniel Ihekina during a radio report

In 2013, teenager Daniel Ihekina evaded security at Benin City Airport in Nigeria and hid in the undercarriage of an airplane on a flight to Lagos. It is believed he survived due to the short length of the flight which meant the plane's maximum altitude only reached 21,000 feet. Upon arrival in Lagos, passengers alerted crew when they saw the young stowaway emerging from the wheel cavity. According to officials, Daniel risked life and limb to escape mistreatment by his parents and thought the plane was headed to America. He was disappointed to find that the plane had never left Nigeria. In a lucky twist a fate, the Edo State Government has offered Daniel a scholarship to one of the top schools in the state. Governor Adams Oshiomole said, "We decided to support him by sending him to one of the top secondary schools in Edo State. The reason for opting for a boarding school is that we think that there is a need to closely watch him which his parents could not do. He is an intelligent young man with uncommon challenges, but one that has a vision."

Yahia Abdi

This year 15-year-old runaway Yahya Abdi miraculously survived a five-hour flight in the freezing wheel well of a Hawaiian Airlines jet as it travelled from California to Hawaii. The stowaway snuck into the Mineta International Airport in San Jose by jumping a fence and holed up in rear left wheel well of the Boeing 767 in an attempt to reunite with his mother. He had recently learned she was alive after his father told him she was dead. Abdi quickly lost consciousness as the plane ascended to 38,000 feet and temperatures in the compartment dipped to minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit. An hour after the plane landed, the boy regained consciousness and emerged on the tarmac. He was spotted by a shocked ground crew. Abdi was questioned by the FBI and his story checked out. He was turned over to local child protection officials, given a medical exam and appears to be unharmed.

As of January 2014, there were 103 wheel-well stowaway attempts on 92 flights recorded by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration since 1947, 23.3% of which were successful.

Fode Tounkara & Yaguine Koïta

Yaguine Koïta and Fodé Tounkara were stowaways who froze to death on a Sabena Airlines Airbus A330 (Flight 520) flying from Conakry, Guinea, to Brussels, Belgium, on July 28, 1999. Their bodies were discovered on August 2 in the airplane's rear right-hand wheel bay at Brussels International Airport, after having made at least three return trips between Conakry and Brussels. The boys were carrying plastic bags with birth certificates, school report cards, family photographs and a letter. This letter, written in imperfect French, was widely published in the world media. Their story was made into a film Early in the Morning (French: Un matin bonne heure) in 2006.

Excellencies, Messrs. members and officials of Europe,

We have the honorable pleasure and the great confidence in you to write this letter to speak to you about the objective of our journey and the suffering of us, the children and young people of Africa.

But first of all, we present to you life's most delicious, charming and respected greetings. To this effect, be our support and our assistance. You are for us, in Africa, those to whom it is necessary to request relief. We implore you, for the love of your continent, for the feeling that you have towards your people and especially for the affinity and love that you have for your children whom you love for a lifetime. Furthermore, for the love and meekness of our creator God the omnipotent one who gave you all the good experiences, wealth and ability to well construct and well organize your continent to become the most beautiful one and most admirable among the others.

Messrs. members and officials of Europe, we call out for your solidarity and your kindness for the relief of Africa. Do help us, we suffer enormously in Africa, we have problems and some shortcomings regarding the rights of the child.

In terms of problems, we have war, disease, malnutrition, etc. As for the rights of the child in Africa, and especially in Guinea, we have too many schools but a great lack of education and training. Only in the private schools can one have a good education and good training, but it takes a great sum of money. Now, our parents are poor and it is necessary for them to feed us. Furthermore, we have no sports schools where we could practice soccer, basketball or tennis.

This is the reason, we, African children and youth, ask you to create a big efficient organization for Africa to allow us to progress.

Therefore, if you see that we have sacrificed ourselves and risked our lives, this is because we suffer too much in Africa and that we need you to fight against poverty and to put an end to the war in Africa. Nevertheless, we want to learn, and we ask you to help us in Africa learn to be like you.

Finally, we appeal to you to excuse us very, very much for daring to write this letter to you, the great personages to whom we owe much respect. And do not forget it is to you whom we must lament about the weakness of our abilities in Africa.

Written by two Guinean children, Yaguine Koita and Fodé Tounkara.

Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaguine_Koita_and_Fod%C3%A9_Tounkara
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wheel-well_stowaway_flights
http://www.dailymail.co.uk