From hiding in the wheels and withstanding freezing temperatures, to sneaking into cargo
containers to escape persecution, here are 8 stowaways who beat the odds and actually
survived!!
8.
The South African Stowaway In June of 2015, a 24-year-old man barely
survived the hypothermia- and frostbite-inducing conditions of riding in a plane’s wheel
well.
How the man was able to survive the plane’s 8,000-mile journey from Johannesburg to London
defies the odds.
According to experts, if a stowaway doesn’t get crushed by the plane’s wheel, they’ll
almost definitely succumb to the harsh conditions of the high-altitude flight.
Most flights from Johannesburg to London are eleven hours long and cruise at an average
altitude between 30,000 and 40,000 feet, putting a human’s chances of survival essentially
at zero.
At that height, it’s likely that the man suffered temperatures as low as minus 54 degrees
Celsius and his oxygen levels dropped to 26% below those at sea level.
Some experts believe that in order to survive, he must have brought a canister of oxygen
onto the plane with him.
While the mystery man remained in critical condition at a London hospital, a body was
discovered on the rooftop of a building near Heathrow.
Investigators believe that the remains belonged to another individual who had also snuck onto
the plane but had fallen out near the end of the flight.
The man who survived made a remarkable recovery and was discharged from the hospital in August,
less than two months after his near-death experience as a stowaway.
7.
Clarence Terhune Known as “the world’s first aerial stowaway,”
19-year-old golf caddy Clarence Terhune snuck onboard a Germany-bound LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin
airship in October 1928.
After making a bet with his brother-in-law that he could sneak onto the craft for the
return leg of its voyage, the St. Louis, Missouri native boarded the airship through its mail
hatch prior to its takeoff from Lakehurst, New Jersey, as it sat in its hangar.
That’s a long flight from Missouri to Germany!!
Once the dirigible was over the Atlantic Ocean, Terhune’s presence was revealed to the crew,
who discovered him sitting on top of a bag of mail.
They decided that the young man would have to pay for his passage one way or another.
Terhune was made to work in the kitchen for the remainder of the flight and was arrested
upon landing.
While the crew onboard the airship was less than amused with Terhune’s antics, the people
of Germany hailed him as a hero.
While still flying over the Atlantic, Terhune was offered a job at a department store in
Germany.
He was also offered a position for a German circus as a “trainer of wild animals.”
Upon his arrival to the country, Terhune was flocked by girls and journalists, received
telegrams, and was invited to dinners.
It’s obvious, based on a photo of him getting arrested with a triumphant grin on his face,
that the young troublemaker was pretty proud of his airborne shenanigans.
No trouble at all!
6.
Billy Gawronski Not all stowaways sneak onto aircraft.
In fact, by the end of the nineteenth century, an international stowaway craze had taken
hold, making it more-or-less a fad to hide aboard ships crossing the Atlantic.
The stowaway trend peaked during the late 1920’s, around the time Clarence Terhune
became the “world’s first aerial stowaway.”
The Roaring Twenties was a decade of extreme “self-promotion,” with massive numbers
of people trying to make names for themselves any way they could!
Just like now!
I mean, think of the crazy things people do now on video, trying to go viral.
It’s pretty much the quick way to get famous!
Out of the many stowaways that successfully hid on ocean vessels during the ‘20s, one
man managed to stand out among the rest.
Meet Billy Gawronski, a Polish American teen who hailed from New York City’s Lower East
Side.
In 1928, 17-year-old Billy swam across the Hudson River to Hoboken, New Jersey to a ship
belonging to explorer Richard Byrd.
The excellent swimmer tried to secretly board Byrd’s ship, which was bound for Antarctica
– it was actually the first American expedition to Antarctica.
However, he got caught.
Billy wasn’t about to give up on his dream of traveling on his hero Richard Byrd’s
ship.
Instead, he tried to board the supply ship, and was caught again.
Proving that persistence is perhaps his best quality, Billy hitchhiked south to Virginia,
where the supply ship was headed, to try- yet again- to sneak aboard.
Finally, Billy was offered a legitimate seat on the ship.
His parents had him arrested for truancy, however.
Luckily, Byrd saw potential publicity in bringing “that Polish stowaway kid” along on his
Antarctic expedition, and Billy finally got his wish: Byrd persuaded the teen’s father
into letting him go.
On newspaper headlines, Billy became known as “the happiest boy in the world.”
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5.
Anonymous Romanian In January of 2010, a 20-year-old Romanian
man crawled underneath the wire of a perimeter fence at the Vienna airport and climbed into
the undercarriage of a privately-owned Boeing 747.
The plane belonged to a high-ranking Sheik from the United Arab Emirates and was bound
for London’s Heathrow Airport.
Normally, a 97-minute flight is considered short.
For this man, however, it was excruciating.
As he clung to the retracted undercarriage of the plane, the man endured temperatures
as low as minus 41 degrees Celsius and severe oxygen deprivation.
In fact, perhaps the only reason the man survived was because the plane, which normally flew
at an altitude of around 37,000 feet, had been instructed to fly at 25,000 feet that
day due to thunderstorms.
This was just low enough for the man to survive.
The man wasn’t discovered until the plane landed.
He just fell right out of the undercarriage.
There’s only one way to describe this stowaway’s circumstances after his daring stunt: extremely
fortunate.
Paramedics examined him and found no serious injuries, despite the extreme conditions he’d
withstood throughout the flight.
According to a representative for the Civil Aviation Authority, the man was extremely
lucky to be alive.
All things considered, the law also went easy on the man: after being arrested and questioned
for being a stowaway and for entering Britain without a passport, he was released.
The light consequences were partially because of the desperate measures the man had taken
to escape Romania.
4.
Daniel Ihekina In August 2013, a teenager named Daniel Ihekina
snuck into the wheel cavity of an airplane headed from Benin City to Lagos, Nigeria.
His survival can be attributed to the low flying altitude typically associated with
short flights.
During the 35-minute domestic flight, the plane flew at a maximum altitude of 21,000
feet.
Shortly before he hid in the plane’s wheel compartment, Ihekina was spotted on the tarmac
at Benin City by a pilot, who radioed the tower and expressed his concern.
According to Arik Airlines, the tower assured the pilot that the situation was under control
and cleared the plane for takeoff.
As the plane took off, passengers noticed that something wasn’t right – loud, unusual
noises were heard from the tire compartment Ihekina was hidden in.
When the plane landed, passengers spotted the young man emerging from a wheel cavity
and alerted the crew.
Ihekina was arrested and questioned by police.
According to the young man, he was being mistreated by his family and wanted to get away from
them.
While Ihekina was likely sent back to Benin City and returned to his parents, the Federal
Airport Authority of Nigeria and Arik Airlines were busy pointing the finger at one another
over the teen’s successful security breach.
3.
Habib Hussain On December 25, 2009, one 25-year-old man
was so desperate to escape what he called “a life of bonded slavery” that he risked
criminal charges by hiding in the bathroom of an airplane and hoping for the best.
Habib Hussain was working as a cleaner at Medina Airport in Saudi Arabia when he saw
an opportunity to escape his reality, which involved being forced to work as a janitor
for no pay.
And who knows what else he was going through.
In a good-faith effort to find honest work, Hussain had given all his money to dishonest
“employment agents” who had promised him employment in the Saudi Kingdom, only to be
forced into unpaid labor.
According to Hussain, who had traveled to Saudi Arabia from the Northern Indian state
of Uttar Pradesh in search of work, the only way he survived in Saudi Arabia was by begging
for money.
It is the new form of slavery.
He boarded a plane that would soon be bound for the Indian state of Rajasthan, under the
excuse that it needed to be cleaned.
Instead, the man locked himself in the airplane’s bathroom prior to takeoff.
Hussain probably knew that he’d inevitably be discovered, since someone would eventually
need to use the bathroom during the flight.
He was arrested for traveling without proper documents and initially denied bail, but don’t
worry!
This has a happy ending!
Bail was granted on January 7, 2010, and Hussain was reunited with his pregnant wife and two
children, who had been campaigning for his release while he was held in Saudi Arabia.
2.
Roberto Viza Egües Attempts to flee Cuba used to be quite common,
but the way one man went about doing it was pretty original.
In August of 2013, Roberto Viza Egues slipped past security at Jose Marti International
Airport in Havana, Cuba, and managed to hide in a cargo container aboard an Air France
aircraft.
Viza was a member of a political dissident group known as the February 24 Movement and
fled Cuba after receiving a death threat for his involvement.
During the 14 hour flight, Viza suffered freezing temperatures, oxygen deprivation, and a severe
nosebleed.
His survival was considered a miracle among journalists, and rightfully so: many stowaways
have died under such extreme conditions.
Viza was discovered when the container he was hidden inside of was delivered to Parisian
grocers, who found him covered in blood.
After being discovered, Viza applied for asylum.
The court denied the application due to a lack of evidence that Viza was likely to face
political persecution in Cuba.
He was then deported and escorted back into the Havana airport by French officers.
He was immediately imprisoned.
Not sure where he is now...
1.
Pardeep Saini In October 1996, 23-year-old Pardeep Saini
and his 19-year-old brother, Vijay, climbed into the undercarriage of a British Airways
Boeing 747 jumbo jet that would soon be headed from New Delhi to London.
The brothers, originally from Punjab, were hoping to gain asylum in Britain because they
had been accused of being Sikh extremists and feared political persecution in their
homeland.
Tragically, Vijay froze to death during the 10 hour flight, after being exposed to temperatures
as low as minus 60 degrees Celsius.
Pardeep, however, miraculously survived.
According to doctors, Pardeep most likely survived as the result of being put into a
state of suspended animation by a combination of hypoxia, or extreme oxygen deprivation,
and hypothermia.
Moments after the plane had taken off, Pardeep had passed out.
After the plane landed, he was found wandering the tarmac.
Pardeep’s application for asylum was ultimately denied.
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