An unidentified man died in the wheel well of a plane during a flight from Tangiers, Morocco, to London
An unidentified man who was found dead in the wheel compartment of an Air Arabia plane died as a result of exposure to extremely cold conditions as well as a lack of oxygen, an inquest was told. The man’s body was discovered after it landed at Gatwick Airport by a ground engineer, during a routine check of the landing gear area.
The death occurred on June 16, 2026, following a three-hour flight from Tangiers, Morocco, to London. A post-mortem examination found that the man died from cardiac arrest brought on by hypoxia – oxygen deprivation – and hypothermia caused by the extreme cold inside the wheel well.
The case is sadly not the first of its kind, with a handful of aircraft stowaways discovered across the world every year. But with the vast majority dying long before they arrive at their destinations, why do so many people take the risk, and has anyone ever actually survived such a journey?
Why do people attempt to stow away in aircraft wheel wells?
It is impossible to know the rationale of most stowaways as the majority do not reach their destinations or are tragically found dead either in the planes themselves or near their destination airports. However, most stowaways are believed to be men fleeing poverty, conflict or persecution in their home countries, hoping to reach Europe or North America in search of safety or a better life.
Illegally stowing away on a plane is an extreme method of desperation, not unlike refugees making dangerous water crossings in unsuitable small boats, or stowing away in lorries to cross borders. Refugee experts have criticised a lack of legal, accessible immigration routes, making desperate individuals more likely to take on a risk like climbing into an aircraft wheel well.
Dr Lisa Doyle, of the Refugee Council, previously called on the government to “provide more safe and regular travel routes for refugees as a vital way of preventing these tragic events from happening.”
What happens to someone attempting to stowaway on an aircraft?
A combination of low temperatures, lack of oxygen and exposure to large, heavy machinery makes the dangers of travelling in such a way particularly extreme. During a flight, temperatures inside a wheel well can plummet to as low as -63 celcius according to the BBC, causing rapid and severe hypothermia in which the body loses heat faster than it can produce it.
At cruising altitude, typically between 35,000 and 40,000 feet, levels of oxygen are far too low to maintain consciousness. This causes hypoxia, which brings on weakness, tremors and loss of vision.
Stowaways are also at significant risk of being crushed when the landing gear retracts on take-off, and if they have somehow survived until the descent to land, they are likely to fall to their deaths when the undercarriage deploys at around 1,500 feet.
Has anyone survived?
Surviving such a journey is incredibly unlikely. Of 96 known stowaways who hid in aircraft undercarriages between 1947 and 2012, according to the US Federal Aviation Administration, an estimated 23 people survived the journey – but there could be dozens more who also attempted such journeys whose bodies were not discovered, for example, at sea.
In the rare event that a stowaway survives, they are usually young and have travelled relatively short distances or at lower altitudes.
According to a report by the BBC, there have been a handful of survival stories:
- In 1969, Armando Socarras Ramirez, aged 22, survived a flight from Havana, Cuba, to Madrid, suffering frostbite but no lasting serious injury.
- In 1996, Pardeep Saini, 23, survived a 10-hour flight from Delhi to London. Tragically, his brother Vijay died after falling from the aircraft as it approached Heathrow.
- In 2000, Fidel Maruhi survived a 4,000-mile journey on a Boeing 747 from Tahiti to Los Angeles.
- In 2002, Victor Alvarez Molina, 22, survived a four-hour flight on a DC-10 from Cuba to Montreal, Canada.
- In June 2010, a 20-year-old Romanian man was found alive in a wheel bay at Heathrow after a flight from Vienna. Crucially, the aircraft had been kept below 25,000 feet as a result of bad weather.
- In 2014, Yahya Abdi, 15, survived a flight on a Boeing 767 from San Jose, California, to Maui, Hawaii.
- In December 2023, a man who had stowed away on a flight from Algeria to France was found in a critical condition with severe hypothermia after a two-and-a-half-hour flight, and was taken to hospital.
While a small number of people have survived stowing away aboard an aircraft, experts are clear: there is no safe way to travel in an aircraft’s landing gear, and the vast majority of those who try do not survive the journey. Yet despite the risk, desperation continues to drive a small number of individuals to take the chance.
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