Ruislip & Eastcote & Northwood Gazette
On a wing and a prayer: the stowaway survivor
LAST week the horrific news was reported that someone had died in the process of trying to stowaway on a Kenya Airways flight to Heathrow.
The story, which ended with the man falling from the plane and landing in a Clapham garden, highlights the desperate lengths some will go to enter a country undetected.
Sadly, many other attempts to flee a country illegally have ended in the death of stowaways, either because they could not withstand the cold temperatures and lack of oxygen or because they could not land safely.
Yet as we know, the human body can sometimes defy the odds; that’s how a 20-year-old Romanian man managed to cling to the undercarriage of a jet for 97 minutes, land at Heathrow and survive.
What we know for sure
In June 2010, the Evening Standard reported how a Romanian stowaway managed to hold on to a plane as it soared at 25,000 feet from Vienna’s Schwechat Airport to London.
Apparently, he snuck under a fence back in Vienna and managed to clamber beneath the nearest Boeing 747 private jet.
The man was apparently in the wheel compartment of the plane for the duration of the flight, which lasted one hour and 37 minutes.
When the plane landed at Heathrow the stowaway tumbled onto the tarmac – and gave security staff quite a fright.
Mystery
There is still lots we don’t know about the miracle stowaway.
Why was he stowing away and how did he manage to get passed security in Vienna?
How did his body withstand the impact it would have faced during that journey and what on earth did it feel like, risking your life in that way?
Perhaps most interestingly, who was this man and where is he now? Is he living in London? What is he doing? Was risking his life to come to England worth it? Did he even have a choice?
How could he have survived?
At the time, the Civil Aviation Authority said it was incredible the man survived.
He faced temperatures of minus 41C, a lack of oxygen, and multiple opportunities to be injured or killed, for example, being crushed by the wheels.
Yet, against all odds, the young man made it.
One source told the Standard at the time the stowaway “was in incredibly good shape”.
Although this was helpful, luck also played a big part.
The plane would have normally been flying more than 10,000 feet higher, at 37,000 feet, which the source said would have killed him – but due to bad weather, including thunderstorms, it was flying far lower.
What happened after he landed?
Paramedics reportedly checked the stowaway while he was still at Heathrow but he was uninjured.
Scotland Yard later released the stowaway, who received a barrage of questions as to why he was in the country without a passport.
Technically, because Romania is in the EU, the man had not broken any immigration laws when he landed at Heathrow.
The UK Border Agency did not seek to deport him.
A police spokesperson said at the time: “Police were alerted at 7.37pm on Sunday, June 6 regarding a suspected stowaway on a private aeroplane that landed at Heathrow.
“A 20-year-old Romanian national was arrested for stowing away on an aircraft, contrary to Article 143 and 241(6) of and Part B of Schedule 13 to the Air Navigation Order 2009.
“It is alleged that he stowed himself in the rear wheel compartment of the aircraft at Vienna Airport.”
The Vienna Airport police chief Leo Lauber explained that it is unlikely the man would have known where the aircraft was headed when he clambered aboard.
The initial investigation into it suggested he was hoping to find work abroad.