In a daring feat that defies the laws of survival, a 13-year-old boy from Afghanistan managed to hitch a ride to Delhi from Kabul aboard a Kam Air flight – not as a passenger, but as a secret stowaway hidden in the aircraft's wheel well – a risky journey undertaken ‘out of curiosity’.
The 13-year-old boy from Afghanistan left airport authorities stunned on Sunday when he arrived at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport hiding inside the landing gear compartment of a Kam Air aircraft, an earlier HT report quoted officials aware of the matter said on Monday.
The Kam Airlines flight RQ-4401 from Kabul landed in Delhi after a 1.5-hour journey at around 11.10 am on Sunday.
How Afghan boy 'wheel-well stowaway'-ed
In aviation, such air travel attempts are referred to globally as “wheel-well stowaways,” in which desperate travellers conceal themselves inside the wheel bay or undercarriage of aircraft.
Such attempts are extremely risky given the freezing altitudes, oxygen deprivation at cruising altitudes apart from the cramped space. Many such attempts end up fatally, generally due to hypothermia.
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As the aircraft taxied at the IGI Airport of Delhi, the airline’s chief security officer spotted the boy – a native of Afghanistan's Kunduz – walking on the taxiway near the plane and immediately alerted the airport’s Security Operations Control Centre, according to an airport official, who asked not to be identified.
{{/usCountry}}As the aircraft taxied at the IGI Airport of Delhi, the airline’s chief security officer spotted the boy – a native of Afghanistan's Kunduz – walking on the taxiway near the plane and immediately alerted the airport’s Security Operations Control Centre, according to an airport official, who asked not to be identified.
{{/usCountry}}The boy was quickly detained and handed over to security agencies, including the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which questioned him for several hours at Terminal-3.
‘Did so out of curiosity’
A CISF official, on condition of anonymity, said the boy told interrogators that he had managed to sneak into Kabul airport and climb into the rear central landing gear of the aircraft before departure.
The boy was repatriated to Kabul later the same day, departing on another flight at around 4 pm. “He said he managed to sneak inside the airport and the landing gear without being detected,” a CISF officer said.
Sources cited in a PTI news agency report said the boy told the officials he did this out of curiosity.
A red-coloured speaker – believed to be of the boy – was recovered during a detailed inspection of the aircraft that was later carried out, CISF official said. Officials confirmed the aircraft was cleared after security checks.
Such stowaway instances, though rare, are not unheard of.
In January 2024, the bodies of two men were found 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 flying from Oran to Paris, suffering from severe hypothermia.
A Guatemalan man in 2021 survived a flight to Miami after hiding in the wheel well for several hours.