In a breathtaking and harrowing act of courage and desperation, a 13-year-old Afghan boy from Kunduz recently hid in the landing gear of a Kam Air flight from Kabul to Delhi.
The boy survived the 94-minute flight—a remarkable feat—but his audacious journey has cast a spotlight on the extremely dangerous world of wheel-well stowaways, where survival is far from guaranteed.
While the Afghan boy’s journey ended with him being safely repatriated to Afghanistan, history is littered with far grimmer outcomes for those who have attempted similar feats.
In 1970, 14-year-old Keith Sapsford from Australia hid in the wheel well of a Japan Airlines DC-8 at Sydney Airport, hoping to reach Japan. Tragically, Keith fell to his death shortly after takeoff, a moment immortalized in a photograph taken by a Japanese tourist—a chilling testament to the risks stowaways face.
Yet, survival stories, though rare, also exist. In 1946, 12-year-old Bas Wie from the Netherlands survived a flight from Amsterdam to London by hiding in a British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) wheel well.
Bas went on to live a full life, marrying and raising five children, before passing away in 2016 at the age of 82, proving that survival, though unlikely, is possible.
Not all attempts end in life, however. In December 2022, a stowaway’s body was discovered in the landing gear of a United Airlines flight from Chicago to Maui, Hawaii. In early 2025, two individuals were found dead in the landing gear compartment of a JetBlue flight from New York to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Even as recently as 2019, a stowaway fell from the landing gear of a Kenya Airways flight from Nairobi to Heathrow, landing fatally in a garden in South London.
The extreme risks of wheel-well stowaways are staggering. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has documented 113 such attempts between 1947 and 2015, with a fatality rate of 76%.
Those who attempt such journeys face hypothermia at temperatures as low as −63°C (−81°F), oxygen deprivation at high altitudes, risk of being crushed by retracting landing gear, or even falling to their death during takeoff or landing.
Why do individuals risk their lives in this way? The answer lies in desperation, poverty, conflict, and the pursuit of a better life—forces so compelling that even life-threatening risks cannot deter them.
The story of the Afghan boy, while ending safely, is a reminder of the extraordinary lengths humans will go to in pursuit of hope and opportunity.
Airports and aviation authorities worldwide are now under pressure to implement stricter security measures to prevent such incidents.
The recurring tragedies and near-miraculous survivals underscore a sobering reality: while daring acts capture headlines, they also highlight vulnerabilities and the human cost of migration and escape.
This remarkable story of courage and peril adds another chapter to the grim yet fascinating history of wheel-well stowaways, a world where adventure, desperation, and survival collide in the most extreme circumstances.
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