Teenager survives flight in wheel well

sopretty

http://www.independent.ie/incoming/teenager-survives-flight-over-pacific-in-wheel-of-jetliner-30203583.html

What are the odds of this happening?

FBI officials confirmed that the boy had traveled from San Jose to Maui in the plane's wheel well, the airline said. The flying time from San Jose to Hawaii is more than five hours.

Hawaiian Airlines had no information about how the boy had managed to survive at an altitude of tens of thousands of feet that jets on that route over the Pacific typically fly at

lintdrummer

sopretty wrote: »

http://www.independent.ie/incoming/teenager-survives-flight-over-pacific-in-wheel-of-jetliner-30203583.html

What are the odds of this happening?

Extremely remote. The wheel well is not pressurised and he'd be sitting there for 5 hours deprived of oxygen and freezing. That's after avoiding being crushed to death by 3000 psi pushing the gear into a tight space after takeoff. I'm interested in the details of how he survived. Most who have attempted this and not been crushed freeze and fall out when the gear extends on approach.

sopretty

lintdrummer wrote: »

Extremely remote. The wheel well is not pressurised and he'd be sitting there for 5 hours deprived of oxygen and freezing. That's after avoiding being crushed to death by 3000 psi pushing the gear into a tight space after takeoff. I'm interested in the details of how he survived. Most who have attempted this and not been crushed freeze and fall out when the gear extends on approach.

http://www.sundayworld.com/top-stories/news/boy-survives-trans-pacific-flight-stowed-away-in-wheel-well#.U1To7HoBwN4.facebook

This link has slightly more info. He was unconscious for most of the flight apparently. Another boy survived a 35 minute flight previously, but any others appear to have died.

sopretty

A teenage boy who ran away from home survived a five-hour flight in the freezing wheel well of a jetliner that reached 38,000ft (11,582 metres) as it travelled from California to Hawaii, the FBI said.
The 16-year-old, from Santa Clara, California, quickly lost consciousness as temperatures in the compartment sank as low as minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit (62 degrees Celsius below zero), said FBI special agent Tom Simon.
About an hour after the plane landed on Sunday morning, the boy regained consciousness and emerged onto the tarmac at the airport in Maui, where he was spotted by ground crew.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/us/boy-survives-flight-over-pacific-in-airplane-wheel-well-1.1768908

It just beggars belief!!

Jhcx

Talk about luck. To do and survive such a mad thing.

sopretty

Some explanation here on how he might have survived

Heat from hydraulic lines in the wheel well along with retained heat in the tires can help keep stowaways warm, the FAA reported. In addition, a plane’s steady climb to high altitudes can allow passengers to drift into an unconscious state as oxygen becomes scarce. As the heat dissipates from the wheel well, a stowaway can develop hypothermia, a condition that preserves the central nervous system. Both hypoxia and hypothermia may resolve as the plane gradually descends for landing, the FAA says.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-california-stowaway-survives-flight-to-hawaii-wheel-well-20140421,0,1218862.story#ixzz2zW8mdShY