NEED TO KNOW
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An Afghan teenager survived a flight to India while hiding in the landing gear of a commercial airplane
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The 13-year-old boy was found wandering the tarmac Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport before being detained and questioned by authorities
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He was eventually sent back home to Kabul on the same flight
A 13-year-old boy survived an entire flight while hiding in the landing gear of an airplane traveling from Afghanistan to India.
The Afghan teenager hid in the rear wheel well of a Kam Air passenger plane as it departed from Kabul before landing at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport on Sunday, Sept. 21, according to the BBC, CNN and The Indian Express.
According to the outlets, the unidentified boy wanted to travel to Iran and snuck into Kabul airport and stowed away in the aircraft’s rear section, mistakenly thinking that the Delhi-bound flight was heading to Tehran.
After the roughly 620-mile flight, which takes about 90 minutes, the teen was spotted by airport staff in his pajamas roaming around the tarmac by himself. They reported the sighting to the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which took him in for questioning.
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Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi, India
After “detailed questioning” by Immigration Department officials, he was sent back on the same aircraft at around 4:00 p.m. local time, the Express reported.
“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,” the CISF said in a statement, per the outlet.
“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,” the authorities added.
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Citing the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), per the Express reported that 132 people attempted to travel in the landing gear compartments of commercial planes between 1947 and 2021.
Wheel-well stowaways are extremely dangerous, with an estimated 77% mortality rate due to the lack of sufficient oxygen and increased freezing temperatures at the high altitude of 30,000 to 40,000 feet when flying, per The Indian Express and CNN.
The cabins of commercial planes aren’t pressurized or heated like the rest of the aircraft, causing temperatures to decrease rapidly and so the chances of catching hypothermia are likely, along with the possibility of being injured upon the impact of landing.
PEOPLE has contacted the IGI, CISF and FAA for comment.
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