Boy Survives in Aircraft Wheel-Well from Benin to Lagos

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.

Source: thisday