A Romanian youth survived a treacherous Vienna-London air journey hiding in a private aircraft’s landing gear. He has now been freed by the border police and is not being deported.
The 20-year-old Romanian was lucky to survive after flying from Vienna to Heathrow through temperatures as low as -41C.
He had bruises and hypothermia but lived because the plane flew at a low altitude to avoid bad weather.
The
nutty stowaway apparently got under a fence at Schwechat airport in
Vienna and climbed into the undercarriage of the first plane he saw
without knowing its destination.
His lift actually belonged to a sheikh from the United Arab Emirates and flew without passengers to Heathrow.
Yesterday the man was arrested, but he’s now been freed with a caution.
A
spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said: “If they
[stowaways] don’t find the right part to stow away, they can be crushed
when the undercarriage comes up.
“Because of the altitude and temperatures during the flight, there is a severe risk to them through exposure and lack of oxygen.
“If
that doesn’t kill them, then they could be unconscious when the
aircraft descends, and that can mean that when the undercarriage opens
again, they will fall out.”
The maddest part of the story is that the man was free to come to the UK legally in the first place.
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