A stowaway clung to the undercarriage of a jet during a flight at 25,000 feet before amazing security men by tumbling onto the tarmac when the plane landed at Heathrow.
The Civil Aviation Authority said today he had been “incredibly lucky” to have survived. He could easily have been crushed by the wheels and also faced temperatures of minus 41C and a lack of oxygen.
One source said that considering his ordeal he “was in incredibly good shape”. The plane would normally have flown at 37,000 feet which would have killed him but was flying lower because of adverse weather conditions.
The 20-year-old Romanian is believed to have been in the wheel compartment of a private jet belonging to the Dubai royal family for one hour 37 minutes during the flight from Vienna to London.
He is said to have slipped under a perimeter fence and clambered beneath the nearest jet.
Paramedics checked him at Heathrow after his arrest but he had suffered no injuries. Scotland Yard said he was cautioned for the offence of being a stowaway and questioned about entering Britain without a passport before being released.
Because Romania is in the EU he had committed no immigration offences. Vienna airport police chief Leo Lauber told the Standard: “He aimed for any jet it would seem, not one in particular. After wriggling under the fence he headed for the aircraft nearest to the fence. He had no idea where it was going to. Initial inquiries here seem to indicate he wanted to go abroad to find work.”
Met police sources said the man fell or jumped down from the undercarriage soon after the plane landed and was arrested by security officials.
One source said: “He was in remarkably good shape. He is extremely lucky, the plane was flying lower than usual because of the weather. If it had been at its usual altitude he might not have survived.”
The aircraft is believed to have been flying lower to avoid unsettled weather and heavy thunderstorms.
A Met spokesman said the man was arrested on Sunday for stowing away in an aircraft contrary to the Air Navigation Order 2009.
Stowaways are occasionally found in the undercarriage of planes but rarely survive.
Others have died after falling from planes when they lower the wheels on approach to landing and others have been crushed to death by the landing gear after take-off.
In October 1996, a couple in a pub garden spotted a body falling from a DC9 over Richmond as it approached Heathrow. Vijay Saini, 19, fell 2,000 feet from the jet and was discovered three days later. A post mortem revealed that he was dead when he tumbled from the plane.
However, his brother Pardeep, 22, survived the 10-hour journey from Delhi in freezing temperatures.
In 2000, a man survived a 747 Air France flight from French Polynesia to Los Angeles. In 2002, a Cuban man was found alive in the wheel well of a plane that landed in Montreal.
SOURCE
Stowaway Keith Sapsford falls to death from wheel housing of plane
|
