The body of an unidentified man was discovered in the landing gear compartment of an Air Arabia plane after it landed at Gatwick Airport on June 16, 2026. A post-mortem examination determined that he died from cardiac arrest caused by hypoxia—oxygen deprivation—and hypothermia, according to an inquest. The man had been on a three-hour flight from Tangiers, Morocco, to London.
A ground engineer found the body during a routine check of the landing gear area. The case highlights the extreme dangers of aircraft stowaway attempts, which occur several times a year worldwide, though the vast majority of stowaways die before reaching their destination.
Why do people attempt to stow away in aircraft wheel wells?
Most stowaways are believed to be men fleeing poverty, conflict, or persecution in their home countries, hoping to reach Europe or North America for safety or a better life, according to refugee experts. The exact rationale of most stowaways remains unknown because many do not survive the journey or are found dead near destination airports.
Stowing away on a plane is an extreme act of desperation, similar to refugees making dangerous water crossings in small boats or hiding in lorries to cross borders. Refugee experts have criticized the lack of legal, accessible immigration routes, which pushes desperate individuals to take such risks. Dr Lisa Doyle of the Refugee Council previously called on the government to "provide more safe and regular travel routes for refugees as a vital way of preventing these tragic events from happening."
What happens to someone attempting to stowaway on an aircraft?
The dangers of traveling in a wheel well are extreme due to a combination of low temperatures, lack of oxygen, and exposure to heavy machinery. During a flight, temperatures inside a wheel well can drop to as low as -63 degrees Celsius, according to the BBC, causing rapid and severe hypothermia. At cruising altitude, typically between 35,000 and 40,000 feet, oxygen levels are too low to maintain consciousness, leading to hypoxia, which causes weakness, tremors, and loss of vision.
Stowaways also face the risk of being crushed when the landing gear retracts on take-off. If they survive until descent, they are likely to fall to their deaths when the undercarriage deploys at around 1,500 feet.
Has anyone survived a wheel well journey?
Surviving such a journey is incredibly unlikely. According to the US Federal Aviation Administration, of 96 known stowaways who hid in aircraft undercarriages between 1947 and 2012, an estimated 23 people survived. However, there could be dozens more whose bodies were never discovered, such as those lost at sea. In rare survival cases, the individuals are usually young and have traveled relatively short distances or at lower altitudes.
According to a BBC report, a handful of survival stories exist. In 1969, Armando Socarras Ramirez, 22, survived a flight from Havana, Cuba, to Madrid, suffering frostbite but no lasting serious injury. In 1996, Pardeep Saini, 23, survived a 10-hour flight from Delhi to London, though his brother Vijay died after falling from the aircraft near Heathrow. In 2000, Fidel Maruhi survived a 4,000-mile journey on a Boeing 747 from Tahiti to Los Angeles. In 2002, Victor Alvarez Molina, 22, survived a four-hour flight on a DC-10 from Cuba to Montreal. In June 2010, a 20-year-old Romanian man was found alive in a wheel bay at Heathrow after a flight from Vienna, but crucially, the aircraft had been kept below 25,000 feet due to bad weather. In 2014, Yahya Abdi, 15, survived a flight on a Boeing 767 from San Jose, California, to Maui, Hawaii. In December 2023, a man who stowed away on a flight from Algeria to France was found in a critical condition with severe hypothermia after a two-and-a-half-hour flight and was taken to hospital.
Experts are clear that there is no safe way to travel in an aircraft's landing gear, and the vast majority of those who try do not survive. Despite the risk, desperation continues to drive a small number of individuals to take the chance, as seen in the Gatwick incident.
