A 13-year-old boy from Afghanistan reached Delhi on Sunday after hiding in the rear central landing gear of a KAM Airlines flight from Kabul.
At Indira Gandhi International Airport, airline staff spotted him near the aircraft and handed him over to the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) for questioning. The boy said he acted out of curiosity and managed to hide in the landing gear compartment. A small red speaker, apparently his, was found during inspection. The plane was cleared after anti-sabotage checks.
The boy was sent back to Afghanistan on the same flight that afternoon.
The incident reminds us of a similar story from nearly three decades ago.
In October 1996, two brothers from Punjab hid in the wheel well of a British Airways plane at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport. Pradeep Saini, 23, and Vijay Saini, 19, wanted to reach London without a visa or enough money.
The brothers, both car mechanics, had been accused of links to a Sikh separatist group, forcing them to flee India. With neither visas nor sufficient funds, they resorted to the extreme measure of stowing away on an international flight.
They managed to infiltrate the airport, evade detection, and hide in the aircraft’s nose wheel well.
The journey was fraught with unimaginable challenges. At cruising altitudes of 35,000 feet, temperatures plummeted to -60 degrees C, and oxygen levels were dangerously low. The noise from the jet engines was deafening, and the physical strain was immense.
Vijay Saini did not survive the ordeal. His body fell from the aircraft as it descended towards London’s Heathrow, likely due to the extreme conditions.
Pradeep Saini endured the 10-hour flight and was found disoriented on the runway upon landing. He was hospitalised for severe hypothermia and later taken into custody.
His survival was deemed a medical anomaly. Experts suggested that the combination of hypoxia and hypothermia may have induced a state similar to suspended animation, allowing his body to withstand the harsh conditions. He eventually settled in the UK after a prolonged legal battle. He now lives in London, where he works at Heathrow Airport.
In 2015, Themba Cabeka, now known as Justin, survived hiding in the landing gear of a flight from Johannesburg to London, while his friend, Carlito Vale, died. Their story is featured in the documentary The Man Who Fell from the Sky.
The pair, seeking a better life, climbed into the plane without realising the dangers of extreme cold and lack of oxygen at high altitude. Mr Cabeka survived thanks to cabling that held him in place, but he sustained serious injuries. Mr Vale fell and died before landing, The Guardian reported.
