An investigation has been launched after a teenager managed to hide in the undercarriage of an aeroplane on a flight to Lagos.
A spokesman for the airline said passengers alerted staff upon landing
when the stowaway was spotted emerging from a wheel cavity. He was later
arrested and questioned by police.
"We have launched an investigation into the incident. This is a
clear case of security breach," Yakubu Dati, a spokesman for The Federal
Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), told AFP.
He said that Arik Air should be blamed for the incident, because it had
failed to act after the boy was sighted on the tarmac at Benin City.
But Arik Air blamed security at Benin. “We are worried by the incessant
security lapses at our airports,” said a spokesman. “We are appealing to the
management of FAAN to immediately address the problem.”
It is thought the teenager was able to survive due to the short length
of the flight, which meant the plane's maximum altitude was 21,000 feet.
Other stowaways have not been so lucky. In September last year, Jose
Matada, 26, from Mozambique died after falling from a Heathrow-bound flight
from Angola. His body was found on the pavement of Portman Avenue in Mortlake,
south-west London.
And in August 2012 the body of a man was discovered in the landing gear
bay of a British Airways Boeing 747 after a 6,000-mile (9,656km) flight from
Cape Town to Heathrow.
Other famous instances of aircraft stowaways
The
first stowaway
19-year-old American Clarence Terhune became perhaps the first aviation
stowaway in 1928 after he hid himself on board the LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin
airship, flying from the US to Germany. He was soon discovered, but was
embraced by Germany. The Pittsburgh Press reported that “the daring of the
boy’s feat thrilled the Germans and gave them a good chuckle”. He was even
offered a job at a department store in Aachen while the airship was still
flying over the Atlantic.
Vienna
to London inside the landing gear
In June 2010, a 20-year-old Romanian man survived temperatures of -41C
inside the landing gear of a Boeing 747 on a 97-minute flight from Vienna to
Heathrow. He slipped under a perimeter fence at Vienna Airport before climbing
into a wheel compartment on board the empty privately-owned aircraft. A police
source said the plane would normally have flown at 37,000ft, but due to
thunderstorms it stayed at an altitude of 25,000ft, just low enough for the man
to survive.
The
man with 11 boarding passes
A Nigerian man was able to board a Virgin Atlantic flight from New York
to Los Angeles last year using an out-of-date boarding pass. Olajide Olwaseun
Noibi was eventually taken into custody in LA after attempting to board a
second flight using the same invalid boarding pass. Police found a further ten
boarding passes in his possession, none of which bore his real name.
The
crafty cleaner
In 2009, Habib Hussain, a 25-year-old member of staff at Medina Airport
in Saudi Arabia, boarded a aircraft bound for Jaipur, India, on the pretence of
cleaning it. He hid in the loo, and was only discovered after take off when
another passenger attempted to use the facilities.
Escape
to Paris
Roberto Viza Egües managed to flee Cuba on August 12, 2000, after
hiding in an Air France cargo container at Havana Airport. He arrived in Paris
the following day, suffering from exposure, but otherwise unharmed. His
application for asylum was denied and his was eventually deported back to Cuba.
A
day in Rome
In July 2012, 11-year-old Liam Corcoran was able to board a Jet2.com
flight from Manchester to Rome, despite being on his own, and without a
passport or ticket. He had wandered to the airport from his home, three miles
away, and evaded five security check
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