Wheel-well stowaway

Wheel-well stowaways are individuals who attempt to covertly travel in the landing gear compartment, also known as the wheel bay or undercarriage, of an aircraft. Between 1947 and June 2015, a U.S. Federal Aviation Administration researcher had documented 113 such attempts on 101 flights. These 113 people were all male and predominantly under age 30. There were 86 deaths, a 76 percent fatality rate, with many unidentified decedents. There may be additional undocumented cases of wheel-well stowaways. A further 19 incidents, identified since 2015, are listed here.
Wheel-well stowaways face considerable risk of death during all phases of flight. Some have been unable to remain in the well during takeoff and landing and have fallen to their death. Immediately after takeoff, the landing gear retracts into the wheel wells, with the potential to crush the stowaway. If the stowaway is able to avoid physical injury, they still face hypothermia and hypoxia risks at the extremely low temperatures and low atmospheric pressure at high altitude, as well as hearing damage from prolonged exposure to the dangerously high noise levels outside the cabin.

Aeromedical physiology

At altitudes above approximately, hypothermia becomes a risk and reduced atmospheric pressure and partial pressure of oxygen, which drop below the level required to support brain consciousness at the cruising altitudes of jet aircraft, may impair physiological processes. At altitudes above, stowaways may also develop decompression sickness and nitrogen gas embolism.
Temperatures continue to decrease with altitude, and may drop as low as. As the plane descends to lower altitudes, a gradual rewarming and reoxygenation occur. If the stowaway has already died, or else does not regain consciousness and mobility by the time the landing gear is lowered during the final approach; the body may fall from the aircraft. According to the FAA, it is likely that the number of stowaways is higher than records show because bodies have fallen into the ocean or in remote areas. Many wheel-well stowaways are found, dead or alive, with their bodies covered in frost, suggesting severe hypothermia during flight. Fidel Maruhi, who survived a wheel-well flight from Tahiti to Los Angeles in 2000, had a body temperature of, well below the level usually considered fatal, when emergency personnel began treating him on the runway.
It is unknown how survivors did not perish from such extreme conditions. A 1996 FAA paper proposed that humans, when placed in an environment that overwhelms the body's ability to control its own temperature, become poikilothermic and enter a state of hibernation that allows the body to temporarily survive in low-oxygen environments. Among 99 known cases of wheel-well stowaways from 1947 through June 6, 2013, there were 76 fatalities and 23 survivors. It is possible there are additional undocumented cases of successful surviving wheel-well stowaways escaping the aircraft undetected possibly with outside assistance.
One survivor, Armando Socarras Ramirez, who defected from Cuba aboard an Iberia flight from Havana to Madrid in 1969, recalled in 2021 that his earliest post-flight memories are of Spanish doctors calling him "Mr. Popsicle" because ice covered his body when the pilot discovered him after his arrival. He had boarded the plane while it was taxiing, carrying a flashlight, rope, and wool to stuff his ears; a companion fell out of the other wheel well before takeoff and a third backed out at the last moment. After takeoff, he had suffered frostbite on his middle finger so severe it turned black holding on until the wheels retracted, but then remembered nothing save shivering and shaking from the extreme cold until he lost consciousness. It took him a month in a Spanish hospital to regain his hearing, but he reports no lingering medical issues from the experience.

In the media

Wheel-well stowaways have been widely covered in the press and media at large throughout the history of passenger airlines. One of the most notable incidents involved Keith Sapsford from Sydney, Australia, who fell to his death from the wheel-well of a Tokyo-bound Japan Air Lines Douglas DC-8 on February 22, 1970, shortly after takeoff from Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport. Amateur photographer John Gilpin was testing his new camera lens by taking pictures of planes taking off that day, and did not realize he had captured the boy's final moments until he developed the pictures a week later. The photo was then featured in Life magazine's issue for the week of March 6, 1970, in their "Parting Shots" section of particularly newsworthy photos, across the fold of a two-page spread.

List of wheel-well stowaways

Below is a chronological list of documented aircraft wheel-well stowaway incidents. Stowaways have also traveled in a cargo hold, or in a spare parts compartment, both of which are pressurized, or even in the pressurized cabin itself. In at least one other instance, on July 31, 2013, a cat survived a flight from Athens to Zürich in the front undercarriage of an Airbus A321; in July 1950, two kittens survived in the landing gear of a small aircraft on a flight from Greenfield, Indiana to Chicago. Those types of incidents are not included in the scope of the list below.

Date	Stowaway	Flight	Aircraft	Stowaway's fate
	Bas Wie, 12	Kupang–Darwin	Douglas DC-3	Survived, naturalised in Australia in 1958 and married
	Francisco Carvalho, 30	Lisbon–Natal	Douglas DC-3	Survived. Returned home to Portugal and was arrested for leaving the country illegally
Aug 24, 1947	Wa Mon-Ping	Lashio–China		Survived, hand and shoulder severely injured
	Sayabali, 18	Nadi–Honolulu	Douglas DC-4	Survived, arrested, jailed for 60 days and deported back to Fiji
	Harvey Wichman, 20 and Russ La Rose, 19	Los Angeles–Milwaukee	Douglas DC-6	Survived, arrested
Feb 10, 1956	Wanderley de Cunha Camargo, 20	São Paulo–New York	Douglas DC-6	Survived, arrested and deported back to Brazil; legally emigrated to the United States that July
	Daniel Melo, 16	Santa Maria-Bermuda	Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation	Survived, caught by LAV's ground team and deported.
	Francisco Cuevas Garcia, 17	Bogotá–Mexico City	Boeing 707	Survived at. Returned home to Querétaro and was pardoned.
	Unidentified man, about 24	Moscow–Paris	Sud Aviation Caravelle	Died
	Unknown youth, 20/21	Orly–Morocco	Sud Aviation Caravelle	Died
	Armando Socarras Ramírez, 17, Jorge Pérez Blanco, 16	Havana–Madrid	Douglas DC-8	Pérez fell out before takeoff and survived to be imprisoned by the Cuban government. Socarras made it to Madrid, was released after 52 days in a Spanish hospital, and as of 2021 lives in Virginia.
	Male, 17, and a second unknown	Havana–Madrid	Douglas DC-8	One survived, second fell to death
	Keith Sapsford, 14	Sydney–Tokyo	Douglas DC-8	Sapsford fell to his death after the landing gear doors opened underneath him as the gear retracted, falling from during the take off sequence. His fatal fall was inadvertently captured by amateur photographer John Gilpin and the photograph was published in Life magazine.
	Jean-Pierre Viers, 13	Lyon–Abidjan	Douglas DC-8	Died
	John J. Gribowski, 18	San Diego–New York City	Boeing 707	Died
	Luis Albert Fula Camacho, 18	Bogotá–Miami	Boeing 707	Died
	Gabriel Pacheco, 35	Panama–Miami	Boeing 707	Survived at
	Two men from Trinidad	Trinidad–Toronto	BWIA West Indies Airways Lockheed L1011	Both survived 5 hour flight
	Shamsul Ramli, 17	Kuala Lumpur–Johannesburg	Boeing 747	Died. Body found in the 747's wheel well at Johannesburg Airport on arrival.
	Juan Carlos Guzmán-Betancourt, 17	Bogotá–Miami	Douglas DC-8	Survived at, but frosted
	Male, 19	Bogotá–New York City	Boeing 747	Died
Sep 13, 1994	Male	Tonga-Raratonga	Boeing 737-300	Died. Body prevented landing gear from extending, requiring crash landing.
	Unknown migrant worker	To Shanghai	Boeing 747	Died
	Two Mongolian boys, about 9 and 12	Ulan Bator–Kadena Air Base	U.S. Air Force Lockheed C-141B	12-year-old declared dead after discovery. Other child died two days later.
	Pardeep Saini, 22, Vijay Saini, 19	New Delhi–London	Boeing 747	Pardeep survived in the nose wheel well at, Vijay died
	Male, adolescent	Nairobi–London	Boeing 747	Died
	Trevor Jacobs, 30	Antigua–Trinidad	McDonnell Douglas MD-80	Died
	Unknown male	Baku–London	Boeing 767	Died, body discovered upon arrival at Gatwick Airport on February 8
	Chinese male, 23	Shanghai–Tokyo	Boeing 747	Survived, but hospitalized in critical condition
	Emilio Dominguez, 23	San Pedro Sula–Miami	McDonnell Douglas DC-9	Survived at, traveled seeking work, but was returned to Honduras
	Yaguine Koita and Fodé Tounkara, both aged 14	Conakry–Brussels	Airbus A330	Both died
	Fidel Maruhi, 24	Papeete–Los Angeles–Paris	Boeing 747-400	Survived at. Discovered during a refueling stopover in Los Angeles, where his body temperature had dropped to, well below levels usually considered lethal, Maruhi later told, that the main motive behind his travel to France was to "shake hands" with Zinedine Zidane.
	Mohammed Ayaz, 21	Muharraq–London	Boeing 777	Died
	Unknown male	London–New York City	Boeing 777	Died
	Mikhail Semenyaga, 24	Perm–Yekaterinburg–Frankfurt		Died
	Alberto Rodriguez, 15, Maikel Almira, 16	Havana–London	Boeing 777	Both died
	Cameroonian male, 34	Rio de Janeiro–Paris		Died
	Victor Alvarez Molina, 24	Havana–Montreal	McDonnell Douglas DC-10	Survived, received refugee status in Canada
	Two boys, 12 and 14	Accra–London	McDonnell Douglas DC-10	Both died
	Mariano Alexis Herrera-Ba, Punta Cana International Airport technician	Punta Cana–Toronto	Airbus A320	Died
	Two unidentified men	Paris–Shanghai	Boeing 777	Both died
	Unknown male	Mali or Gabon–Paris?		Died
	Unknown Russian male, 19	To Frankfurt		Died
	Unknown male, about 25	Montego Bay–New York City		Died
	Unknown male, 30s	Lagos–London–New York City	Boeing 747	Died
	Unknown male, 20	Dominican Republic–Düsseldorf		Died
	Unknown male, 20s	Miami–Detroit	Boeing 737	Died
	Liang Kailong, 14, Su Qing, 13	Kunming–Chongqing	Airbus A320	Liang survived, Su died
	Unknown	Mali–Paris		Died
	Unknown male			Died
	Unknown boy, about 10	Dunhuang–Lanzhou	Airbus A320	Died
	Unidentified	Johannesburg–Dakar–New York City	Airbus A340	Died
	Male	Johannesburg–Dakar–Atlanta	Boeing 767	Died
	Unidentified	Banjul–Dakar–Brussels	Airbus A330-300	Died
	Samuel Peter Benjamin, 17	Singapore–Vancouver–Hong Kong–Cape Town–London–Los Angeles	Boeing 747	Died in the front wheel well, presumably after hitching the aircraft in his hometown Cape Town on January 22, body discovered in Los Angeles
	Asian male, 50s	Shanghai–San Francisco	Boeing 747	Died
	Andrey Shcherbakov, 15	Perm–Moscow	Boeing 737	Survived, but suffered severe frostbite
	Osama R.M. Shublaq	Kuala Lumpur–Singapore	Boeing 777-200	Survived
	Ilgar Ashumov, 15	Baku–Moscow		Died on approach to Domodedovo International Airport, body found 12 km from the airport
	Filipp Yurchenko, 19	Irkutsk–Khabarovsk–Vladivostok	Airbus A320	Died
	Unknown male	New York City–Narita	Boeing 777	Died
	Unknown Dominican male	Santo Domingo–Miami	Boeing 767	Died
	Okechukwu Okeke, Nigerian	Lagos to the United States	Boeing 777	Died in the nose wheel well
	Unknown African male	To Zürich		Died
	Romanian male, 20	Vienna–London	Boeing 747	Survived
	Unknown male	Beirut–Riyadh	Airbus A320	Died
	Nigerian national	Johannesburg–Lagos		Died
	Roman Sorokovikov, 16	Yerbogachen–Kirensk	Antonov An-24	Survived, but planned to reach Irkutsk
	Delvonte Tisdale, 16	Charlotte–Boston	Boeing 737	Died
	Qasim Siddique	Lahore–Dubai		Died
	Adonis Guerrero Barrios, 23	Havana–Madrid	Airbus A340	Died
	Unidentified male	Cape Town–London	Boeing 747-400	Died
	Jose Matada, 27	Luanda–London	Boeing 777	Died
	Unidentified male	London–Lagos	Airbus A340-500	Died
	Unidentified male	Yaoundé–Paris	Boeing 767	Died
	Georgian national, 22	Rimini–Moscow	Airbus A321	Died four days before discovery, and may have been undetected for seven or more previous flights; stowaway boarding location undetermined.
	Hikmet Komur, 32	Istanbul–London	Airbus A320	Died, body found upon arrival at Heathrow Airport
	Unknown male	Ouagadougou–Niamey–Paris	Airbus A330	Died
	Daniel Ihekina, 13/14	Benin City–Lagos		Survived
	Unknown	Mashhad–Medina	Boeing 767-300ER	Died
	Chris Dikeh, Nigerian national	Dakar–Washington, D.C.	Airbus A340-300	Died
	Yahya Abdi, Somali national, 16	San Jose–Kahului	Boeing 767	Survived
	Male, 17	Sandefjord–Amsterdam	Embraer 190	Died
July 27, 2014	Unknown male teenager	Mali –Ramstein Air Base	Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules	Died
March 14, 2015	Unidentified male, 40s	Lagos–New York City	Airbus A340-500	Died
April 7, 2015	Mario Steven Ambarita, 21	Pekanbaru–Jakarta	Boeing 737-800	Survived
June 19, 2015	Carlito Vale, Mozambican national, 28/29, and Themba Cabeka, 24	Johannesburg–London	Boeing 747-400	Vale died. Cabeka survived with life-changing injuries and has been granted leave to remain.
September 12, 2015	Unidentified stowaway	Nairobi–Amsterdam	Boeing 777-200	Died, body discovered upon arrival at Schiphol Airport
January 11, 2016	Unidentified male	São Paulo–Paris	Boeing 777	Died, body discovered during maintenance operations on the Boeing 777 at Orly Airport
February 14, 2016	Unidentified man	Munich–Durban	McDonnell Douglas MD-11	Died, body discovered during refuelling at Harare International Airport, Zimbabwe.
June 7, 2016	Unidentified male	Dakar–Brussels	Airbus A330	Died, body discovered during regular maintenance at Brussels Airport
September 21, 2016	Unidentified African male	Nigeria–Jeddah	Boeing 747	Died, body discovered in the rear wheel well during regular check at King Abdulaziz International Airport
November 30, 2016	Unidentified stowaway	Lagos–Johannesburg	Airbus A330-200	Died, body discovered at the O. R. Tambo International Airport
August 12, 2017	Unidentified Dominican male	Santo Domingo–Miami	Airbus A321	Survived, was returned to Dominican Republic
January 13, 2018	Unidentified male	Honolulu–Japan		Died, body fell on take-off.
February 11, 2018	Unidentified African man	Kinshasa–Ukunda		Died, found after emergency landing at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport
February 26, 2018	Marco Vinicio PG, 17, and Luis Manuel Ch. P., 16	Guayaquil–New York	Boeing 767-300	Both died
August 2018	Unidentified male	Caracas–La Fría		Died
April 13, 2019	Unidentified male	Pointe-à-Pitre–Cayenne	Airbus A320	Survived. Homeless man found on the tarmac of the Félix Éboué Airport. The flight made a refuelling stop at Martinique Aimé Césaire International Airport in Martinique between Pointe-à-Pitre and Cayenne.
June 30, 2019	Unidentified male, 29	Nairobi–London	Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner	Died. An investigation by Sky News initially identified the man as 29-year old Paul Manyasi, an employee of Colnet, a cleaning company contracted by Kenya Airports Authority (KAA). KAA and Colnet both claimed that their records showed that Manyasi was never employed by Colnet, nor did his name appear on any airport staff registers. Later reporting by KTN News Kenya found that the family who claimed to have positively identified Manyasi as their son was not even named Manyasi, had no son named Paul and had been paid US$200 to make the claim. Sky retracted the story and apologized to its readers for having been misled and Colnet for having erroneously reported the man had been an employee.
September 30, 2019	Unidentified male, 20s.	Conakry–Casablanca	Boeing 737-800	Died. Unknown man in his twenties was found lifeless in plane's landing gear compartment. External examination of the body revealed severe abrasions, particularly on the chest, abdomen and limbs. The body was frozen and rigor mortis had already set in. The cause of death was judged to occur as a result of the combined effect of hypothermia and thoracic trauma.
January 7, 2020	Unidentified male	Abidjan–Paris	Boeing 777-300	Died
February 4, 2021	Kenyan national, 16	London Stansted–Maastricht	Airbus A330	Survived. Was hospitalized but recovered. The flight reportedly left from Nairobi previously, arriving in London after a stop in Istanbul.
April 19, 2021	Unidentified male	Lagos–Amsterdam	Airbus A330-200	Died during the flight, likely of hypothermia.
August 16, 2021	Shafiullah Hotak, Fida Mohammad, Zaki Anwari	Kabul, Afghanistan	Boeing C-17	Three men were among those who died during the 2021 Kabul Airport evacuation. Several men were seen clinging on to the landing gear, with at least two of them falling from the plane moments after takeoff. The bodies of the fallen men were later recovered from the rooftop of a house in Kabul and were identified as Shafiullah Hotak and Fida Mohammad. Zaki Anwari was a third fatality, whose remains were seen trapped in the landing gear, hours after take-off. Anwari was a footballer and had represented Afghanistan's under-23 team.
November 27, 2021	Unidentified male	Guatemala City, GUA-Miami, FL	Boeing 737-800	Survived. The unidentified male was taken into the custody of U.S. Customs and Border Protection and was taken to the hospital for medical evaluation.
January 23, 2022	Unidentified male, 22 years old, from Kenya	Johannesburg – Nairobi – Amsterdam Cargolux Italia	Boeing 747-400F	Survived. The unidentified male was apprehended by Dutch border control to undergo medical evaluation.
April 17, 2023	Unidentified male, possibly from Nigeria	Lagos – Toronto – Amsterdam	Boeing 777	Died on flight, possibly from hypothermia
September 15, 2023	Unidentified male, possibly from Gambia	Banjul – Several destinations in Europe – Amsterdam – Istanbul Turkish Airlines	Airbus A330	Died, possibly got on in Gambia on September 10. Found on September 15 during routine maintenance in Istanbul.
December 28, 2023	Unidentified male, possibly in his 20s	Oran - Paris Orly	Boeing 737	Alive but in critical condition
December 25, 2024	Unidentified person	Chicago O'Hare - Kahului, Hawaii	Boeing 787-10	Died; body discovered upon landing.
January 7, 2025	Jeik Aniluz Lusi, 18, Elvis Borques Castillo, 16	John F Kennedy - Fort Lauderdale, Florida	Airbus A321	Died; bodies discovered in landing gear compartment upon landing.
September 21, 2025	13-year-old resident of Kunduz, Afghanistan	Kabul - Delhi	Airbus A340	Survived. Sent back to Afghanistan on the same flight.
September 28, 2025	Jose Joaquin De Leon Santiz, 25	Frankfurt or Madrid – Charlotte		Died, body found during maintenance in Charlotte.