KATHMANDU, Sep 23: In a shocking and bizarre incident, a 13-year-old boy from Afghanistan stunned airport personnel in Delhi, India, after he was found hiding inside the landing gear compartment of a commercial aircraft that flew from Kabul.
The boy managed to hitch a ride to Delhi by clinging to the narrow landing gear bay for over two hours, according to international news agencies.
According to Indian media outlets, the boy boarded a Kam Air flight (RQ-4401) from Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul and landed at Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi on Sunday. The flight departed at 8:46 AM IST and landed at 10:20 AM at Terminal 3.
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After landing, airline staff noticed a young boy wandering near the aircraft. Security personnel were immediately alerted, and the boy was taken into custody and later handed over to local police. Authorities confirmed that he is from Kunduz, a city in northern Afghanistan. His name has not been disclosed.
During questioning, the boy reportedly stated that he had hidden in the landing gear out of curiosity—he wanted to see what the ground looked like from the sky.
In aviation, such attempts are globally referred to as "wheel-well stowaways", where individuals desperately hide inside the wheel bay or undercarriage of an aircraft in hopes of traveling unnoticed.
Experts say surviving such a journey is extremely rare due to freezing temperatures, lack of oxygen, high airspeed and confined space. Most of these attempts are fatal, often resulting in death by hypothermia or hypoxia. At cruising altitudes above 30,000 feet, temperatures can fall to –40 to –60 degrees Celsius, and oxygen levels are critically low—making survival nearly impossible.
Authorities at Indira Gandhi International Airport confirmed that the aircraft was thoroughly inspected and declared safe after landing. The boy was deported back to Afghanistan on the same day via the same airline.
