13-Year-Old Afghan Boy’s Daring Survival as Wheel-Well Stowaway on Delhi-Bound Flight

New Delhi – A 13-year-old boy from Afghanistan astonished authorities at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport on Sunday after surviving a daring journey from Kabul as a stowaway in the landing gear compartment of a Kam Air flight, officials told The Chenab Times.

The incident occurred when Kam Airlines flight RQ-4401 landed in Delhi at around 11:10 am on Sunday after a 1.5-hour journey from Kabul. As the aircraft taxied, the airline’s chief security officer noticed the boy walking on the taxiway near the plane and alerted the airport’s Security Operations Control Centre, according to an airport official who requested anonymity. The boy, a native of Kunduz, was detained and handed over to the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) for questioning at Terminal-3.

A CISF official, also speaking anonymously, said the boy admitted to sneaking into Kabul airport and climbing into the rear central landing gear of the aircraft before departure. Known as a “wheel-well stowaway,” such attempts involve hiding in the cramped and hazardous undercarriage of an aircraft, where extreme cold and low oxygen levels at high altitudes often prove fatal due to hypothermia. Remarkably, the boy survived and was repatriated to Kabul on another flight at around 4:00 pm the same day.

A detailed inspection of the aircraft revealed a red-colored speaker, believed to belong to the boy, in the landing gear compartment. The aircraft was cleared for operation after security checks, the CISF official confirmed.

Such stowaway incidents, though rare, have occurred globally. In January 2024, two men were found dead in the landing gear of a JetBlue flight from the Dominican Republic to Florida. In December 2023, an Algerian youth was discovered in critical condition after stowing away on a flight from Oran to Paris, suffering from severe hypothermia, according to various reports.

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The Chenab Times News Desk