Afghan teen travels from Delhi to Kabul hidden in aircraft’s wheel well, survives miraculously
PTC News Desk: A 13-year-old Afghan boy shocked airport authorities on Sunday after arriving at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport as a “wheel-well stowaway,” having hidden inside the landing gear compartment of a Kam Air flight, officials said on Monday.
The incident took place around 11:10 am, when Kam Airlines flight RQ-4401 landed in Delhi from Kabul after a 90-minute journey.
As the aircraft taxied, the airline’s chief security officer noticed the boy walking along the taxiway near the plane and immediately informed the airport’s Security Operations Control Centre, an airport official said on condition of anonymity.
The boy was swiftly apprehended and handed over to security agencies, including the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which interrogated him for several hours at Terminal-3.
According to a CISF official, who also requested anonymity, the boy — a resident of Kunduz — revealed that he had managed to sneak into Kabul airport and hide in the rear central landing gear of the aircraft before takeoff.
A detailed inspection of the aircraft was later carried out, including the landing gear compartment, where a red-coloured speaker -- believed to belong to the boy -- was recovered, the CISF official cited above said. Officials confirmed the aircraft was cleared after security checks.
- With inputs from agencies
