A thirteen-year-old Afghan boy hid in the chassis of a KAM Air airplane and flew from Kabul to Delhi. This was reported by Zamin.uz.
This incident was reported by The Independent newspaper. The teenager, who lives in Kunduz city, Afghanistan, was found two hours after the plane landed at Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi.
According to officials, the boy managed to enter the restricted area of Kabul airport and hide in the rear section of the airplane chassis. After landing, airline staff found him near the plane and informed the airport security service.
Preliminary investigation revealed that the teenager entered the plane out of curiosity, unaware of the dangers. After Delhi, he was returned to Afghanistan on another flight.
Cases of hiding in airplane chassis are rare because most stowaways without tickets die due to hypoxia, hypothermia, or injuries sustained from the chassis mechanisms. According to aviation expert Mohan Ranganathan, the boy likely entered a tightly enclosed space where conditions were close to the temperature inside the passenger cabin.
He emphasized that at an altitude of approximately ten kilometers, the risk of losing consciousness and death due to low oxygen levels is high. Additionally, temperatures dropping from -40 to -60 degrees can cause frostbite and hypothermia in less than a minute.
From 1947 to 2020, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration recorded 128 cases of stowaways traveling in airplane chassis, with over 75 percent of them dying due to harsh conditions. These incidents demonstrate that traveling hidden in airplane chassis is extremely dangerous.
