Boy Survives in Aircraft Wheel-Well from Benin to Lagos 25 Aug 2013 Font Size: a / A Arik Airline Chinedu Eze A 13-year –old boy sneaked into the undercarriage compartment of Arik Air Flight WS 544, known as the wheel-well and hid himself there and survived a 35-minutes flight from Benin to Lagos and on arrival at the Murtala Muhammed Internatonal Airport, he was arrested by aviation security operatives. The boy, Daniel Ohakhena, was said to be in the midst of two other boys who ran into the airside from the nearby bush and were playing around the aircraft when the pilot came in to take off. Seeing the boys, the pilot was said to have told the control tower to ask the security operatives to chase the boys away but Daniel was said to have hid himself in the undercarriage compartment, where the tyres go in when the aircraft takes off and without the knowledge of the “object in the aircraft”, the pilot took off and arrived at Lagos airport. A source who spoke to THISDAY said, “When the pilot was ready to take off, he saw three children playing around the aircraft, so he asked the control tower to come and chase the boys away. The person the pilot spoke to assured him that the boys had been chased out of the place without knowing that one of the boys stayed behind. The boys were seen at about 300 metres of the runway. The pilot did not notice anything when he engaged power and took off.” Spokesman of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Yakubu Dati, confirmed the incident , saying the agency was investigating its veracity as he noted that because of the difficulty in surviving in the undercarriage compartment which is usually very cold, the agency must ensure that it got detailed facts about what actually happened. He also disclosed that the boys were found to be the children of the members of staff of the agencies that work at the airport, so they live around the airport, adding that it would be extremely difficult for people outside to have access to the airport. What may be confirmed later is how they boy was able to survive in the wheel-well which at high altitude of the aircraft can be as cold as minus five degrees; although industry operatives said he might have survived because of the short duration of the flight which was about 35 minutes. Also pilots and aeronautical engineers familiar with the wheel well compartment said it is roomy enough to contain a human being, but it is highly unlikely that any one who hid there would come out alive after a flight that took several hours due to lack of oxygen. Many persons who had hid themselves in the wheel well of aircraft had died, killed by cold, but this boy survived.
Posted on: Sun, 25 Aug 2013 06:59:24 +0000
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