Afghan boy’s survival in aircraft wheel bay shocks aviation experts in Delhi

Experts noted such feats often end in death; IGI authorities alerted MEA and Afghan officials, who confirmed his identity before placing him on a return flight.

On Sunday morning, ground staff at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport spotted a barefoot boy in a kurta-pajama walking dazed on the taxiway near a Kam Air flight that had just arrived from Kabul. The sight instantly triggered alarm bells, kicking off a multi-agency response involving immigration authorities, the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), the Intelligence Bureau (IB), and the Union home and external affairs ministries, among others, officials aware of the matter said on Tuesday.

The Kam Air flight RQ 4401 landed at IGI at 10.20am. About 20 minutes later, an airline security officer noticed the boy wandering barefoot on the apron.(kamair.com)

It turned out that the 13-year-old– identified by officials by only his first name, Faizal – had made the perilous 90-minute journey hidden inside the wheel-well of the aircraft, an impossibly dangerous feat that has killed many who attempted it.

The Kam Air flight RQ 4401 landed at IGI at 10.20am. About 20 minutes later, an airline security officer noticed the boy wandering barefoot on the apron, his clothes dusty, his feet blistered, and his only belongings a few medicines in his pocket. “By 11.10am, the Security Operations Control Centre was alerted and the boy was ushered to the arrival deportee room,” an official aware of the matter said.

Since Faizal could not speak English or Hindi, officials brought in the Afghan crew from the aircraft to translate. Through them, they learnt that the boy was from Kunduz and had sneaked into Kabul airport by tailgating passengers. Once near the plane, he clambered into the central landing gear compartment and wedged himself inside, officials aware of the matter said.

“During questioning, the boy described how his shoes melted against the tyres during takeoff due to the heat, and how he sat curled up with his pheran and jacket for warmth. He believed the residual tyre heat may have helped him survive the freezing conditions as the plane climbed to 30,000 feet,” said the official cited above.

When security staff checked the landing gear bay, they found a small red Bluetooth speaker that the boy had carried.

Then a flurry of officials – Immigration, BCAS, IB and airport operator DIAL staff – gathered to coordinate. Senior officials in the Union ministries of home affairs and external affairs were informed, and Afghan authorities were contacted to verify his antecedents.

The verification process lasted nearly three hours. Once Afghan officials confirmed his details, arrangements were made to repatriate him. At 4pm, Faizal was put on the same Kam Air jet (RQ 4402) – albeit in the passenger seat this time – and flown back to Kabul the same day.

Aviation experts said Faizal’s survival was unusual, though not unprecedented.

“It has been done before and can happen again. The fuselage space around the landing gear does have space -- it includes components like fire bottles and hydraulic systems. Once the aircraft is airborne, the landing gear retracts into this area. But since it’s not part of the pressurised cabin, the temperature inside keeps dropping as the plane goes higher,” said captain Sharath Panicker, a former pilot.

Globally, however, such incidents have often ended in tragedy. In January 2024, the bodies of two men were found in the landing gear of a JetBlue flight from the Dominican Republic to Florida. In December 2023, an Algerian youth was discovered in critical condition after flying from Oran to Paris, suffering from severe hypothermia. In 2021, a Guatemalan man survived a flight to Miami after hiding in the wheel well for several hours.