List of wheel-well stowaway flights

Wheel well of a Boeing 747

This page lists known flights with stowaways, who for various reasons traveled inside the wheel well (landing gear compartment, also known as wheel bay). As of January 2014, there were 103 such attempts on 92 flights recorded by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration since 1947, 23.3% of which were successful. In at least one instance, on July 31, 2013, a cat survived a flight from Athens to Zürich in the front undercarriage of an Airbus A321.

A wheel-well stowaway typically faces two life-threatening conditions during flight: hypoxia and hypothermia. Physiological threats for a stowaway are minimal at altitudes to 2,440 m (8,000 ft), but at higher altitudes reduced atmospheric pressure and partial pressure of oxygen may exert influence. At all cruising altitudes of jet aircraft, the partial pressure of oxygen in a wheel well is below that required to support brain consciousness. At altitudes above 6,100 m (20,000 ft) stowaways may also develop decompression sickness and nitrogen gas embolism. But as a wheel-well stowaway is carried to lower altitudes, a gradual rewarming and reoxygenation occur.

Date	Stowaway(s)	Flight	Aircraft	Stowaway's fate
August 7, 1946	Bas Wie, 12	Kupang–Darwin	Douglas DC-3	Survived, naturalised in Australia in 1958 and married
August 5, 1947	Male, 30	Lisbon–Natal	Douglas DC-3	Survived
September 28, 1966	Male, 17	Bogotá–Mexico City	Colombian jet airliner	Survived at 34,000 ft
April 18, 1966	Unidentified man, about 24	Moscow–Paris		Died
April 19, 1966	Unknown youth, 20/21	Orly–Morocco	Air France Sud Aviation Caravelle	Died (froze)
June 4, 1969	Armando Socarras Ramirez, 17, Jorge Perez Blanco, 16	Havana–Madrid (Iberia Flight 904)	Douglas DC-8	Ramirez survived, Blanco died
July 26, 1969	Male, 17 and a second unknown	Havana–Madrid	Douglas DC-8	One survived, second fell to death
June 21, 1970	Male, 13	Lyon–Abidjan	Douglas DC-8	Died (fell at Abidjan when landing gear lowered)
February 24, 1970	Keith Sapsford, 14	Sydney–Tokyo	Douglas DC-8	Died (fell from 200 ft on takeoff)
April 14, 1972	Male, 18	San Diego–New York City	Boeing 707	Died (froze)
March 23, 1975	Unknown youth	Bogotá–Miami	Boeing 707	Died (fell)
November 14, 1986	Male, 35	Panama–Miami	Boeing 707	Survived at 39,000 ft
February 19, 1990	2 men from Trinidad	Trinidad–Toronto	BWIA West Indies Airways Lockheed L1011	Both survived 5 hour flight
June 4, 1993	Male, 13	Bogotá–Miami	Douglas DC-8	Survived at 35,000 ft, but frosted
August 4, 1993	Male, 19	Bogotá–New York City	Boeing 747	Died
1995	Unknown migrant worker	To Shanghai	Boeing 747	Died (froze and fell during landing at Pudong International Airport)
August 2, 1996	Two Mongolian boys, about 9 and 12	Ulan Bator–Kadena Air Base	U.S. Air Force Lockheed C-141B	One survived, the other one about 12 years old died
October 14, 1996	Pardeep Saini, 22, Vijay Saini, 19	New Delhi–London	Boeing 747	Pardeep survived in the nose wheel well at 35,000 ft, Vijay died
March 22, 1997	Male, adolescent	Nairobi–London	Boeing 747	Died
1998	Trevor Jacobs, 30	Antigua–Trinidad	McDonnell Douglas MD-80	Died (Trevor Jacobs was wanted on several criminal charges, including kidnapping)
February 7, 1998	Unknown male	Baku–London (British Airways Flight 2028)	Boeing 767	Died, body discovered upon arrival to Gatwick Airport on February 8
July 28, 1998	Chinese male, 23	Shanghai–Tokyo	Boeing 747	Survived, but hospitalized in critical condition
September 14, 1998	Emilio Dominguez, 23	San Pedro Sula–Miami (Iberia Flight 6130)	McDonnell Douglas DC-9	Survived at 33,000 ft, traveled seeking work, but was returned to Honduras
July 28, 1999	Yaguine Koita and Fodé Tounkara	Conakry–Brussels (Sabena Flight 520)	Airbus A330	Both died (froze)
August 4, 2000	Fidel Maruhi, 24	Papeete–Los Angeles–Paris (Air France Flight 71)	Boeing 747-400	Survived at 38,000 ft. Discovered during a refueling stopover in Los Angeles, Maruhi later told, that the main motive behind his travel to France was to "shake hands" with Zinedine Zidane.
June 2001	Mohammed Ayaz, 21	Muharraq–London	Boeing 777	Died (traveled to London due to job hardships in Pakistan and Bahrain)
August 7, 2001	Unknown male	London–New York City (American Airlines Flight 131)	Boeing 777	Died (fell from 1,500 ft on approach to John F. Kennedy International Airport)
September, 2001	Mikhail Semenyaga, 24	Perm–Yekaterinburg–Frankfurt		Died
December 24, 2001	Alberto Rodriguez, 15, Maikel Almira, 16	Havana–London	Boeing 777	Both died (planned hiding on a flight to Miami)
July 2002	Cameroonian male, 34	Rio de Janeiro–Paris (Air France flight)		Died
December, 2002	Victor Alvarez Molina, 24	Havana–Montreal	McDonnell Douglas DC-10	Survived, received refugee status in Canada
December 5, 2002	Two boys, 12 and 14	Accra–London	McDonnell Douglas DC-10	Both died
January 11, 2003	Mariano Alexis Herrera-Ba, Punta Cana International Airport technician	Punta Cana–Toronto	Airbus A320	Died
January 23, 2003	Two unidentified men	Paris–Shanghai (Air France Flight 112)	Boeing 777	Both died (fell on approach to Pudong International Airport)
February 25, 2003	Unknown male	Mali or Gabon–Paris?		Died (fell near Paris)
March 25, 2003	Unknown male, 19	To Frankfurt		Died
December 24, 2003	Unknown male, about 25	Montego Bay–New York City		Died
December 30, 2003	Unknown male, 30s	Lagos–London–New York City (British Airways Flight 117)	Boeing 747	Died (body found upon arrival to John F. Kennedy International Airport)
July 21, 2004	Unknown male, 20	Dominican Republic–Düsseldorf		Died (froze)
October 22, 2004	Unknown male, 20s	Miami–Detroit	Boeing 737	Died
November 11, 2004	Liang Kailong, 14, Su Qing, 13	Kunming–Chongqing	Airbus A320	Liang survived, Su died (fell shortly after takeoff)
November 16, 2004	Unknown	Mali–Paris		Died
November 30, 2004	Unknown male			Died (fell, body found in Louvain)
May 25, 2005	Unknown boy, about 10	Dunhuang–Lanzhou	Airbus A320	Died
June 7, 2005	Unidentified	Johannesburg–Dakar–New York City (South African Airways Flight 203)	Airbus A340	Died (crushed on approach to John F. Kennedy International Airport)
January 12, 2007	Male	Johannesburg–Dakar–Atlanta (Delta Air Lines Flight 35)	Boeing 767	Died (frozen and crushed)
January 15, 2007	Unidentified	Banjul–Dakar–Brussels	Airbus A330-300	Died
January 28, 2007	Samuel Peter Benjamin, 17	Singapore–Vancouver–Hong Kong–Cape Town–London–Los Angeles	Boeing 747	Died in the front wheel well, presumably after hitching the aircraft in his hometown Cape Town on January 22, body discovered in Los Angeles
July 19, 2007	Asian, 50s	Shanghai–San Francisco (United Airlines flight)	Boeing 747	Died (in the nose gear wheel well)
September 21, 2007	Andrey Shcherbakov, 15	Perm–Moscow	Boeing 737	Survived, but suffered severe frostbite
October 12, 2007	Osama R.M. Shublaq, Palestinian	Kuala Lumpur–Singapore (Singapore Airlines Flight 119)	Boeing 777-200	Survived
October 21, 2007	Ilgar Ashumov, 15	Baku–Moscow		Died on approach to Domodedovo International Airport, body found 12 km from the airport
August 9, 2009	Filipp Yurchenko, 19	Irkutsk–Khabarovsk–Vladivostok (Vladivostok Avia Flight 486)	Airbus A320	Died
February 7, 2010	Unknown male	New York City–Narita (Delta Air Lines Flight 59)	Boeing 777	Died
February 18, 2010	Unknown Dominican male	Santo Domingo–Miami (Amerijet flight)	Boeing 767	Died (fell during takeoff)
March 2010	Okechukwu Okeke, Nigerian	Lagos to the United States (Delta Air Lines flight)	Boeing 777	Died in the nose wheel well
April 2010	Unknown African male	To Zürich		Died (fell after landing gear was lowered on approach to Zürich, body found in Weisslingen)
June 6, 2010	Romanian male, 20	Vienna–London	Boeing 747	Survived
July 9, 2010	Unknown male	Beirut–Riyadh (Nasair flight)	Airbus A320	Died
September 19, 2010	Nigerian national	Johannesburg–Lagos (Arik Air flight)		Died (crushed)
November 2, 2010	Male, 16	Yerbogachen–Kirensk	Antonov An-24	Survived, but planned to reach Irkutsk
November 15, 2010	Delvonte Tisdale, 16	Charlotte–Boston (US Airways Flight 1776)	Boeing 737	Died (possible fatal injury inside wheel well from landing gear, fell on approach to Boston)
July 13, 2011	Adonis Guerrero Barrios, 23	Havana–Madrid	Airbus A340	Died
July 26, 2012	Unidentified male	Cape Town–London (British Airways flight)	Boeing 747	Died
September 9, 2012	Jose Matada, 27	Luanda–London	Boeing 777	Died (fell)
October 26, 2012	Unidentified male	London–Lagos	Airbus A340-500	Died
April 8, 2013	Unidentified male	Yaoundé–Paris (Camair-Co flight)	Boeing 767	Died
June 6, 2013	Georgian national, 22 (presumably)	Rimini–Moscow (I-Fly flight)	Airbus A321	Died
July 18, 2013	Hikmet Komur, 32	Istanbul–London (British Airways Flight 675)	Airbus A320	Died (froze), body found upon arrival to Heathrow Airport
July 25, 2013	Unknown male	Ouagadougou–Niamey–Paris (Air France Flight 547)	Airbus A330	Died (fell during landing in Niamey)
August 24, 2013	Daniel Ihekina, 13/14	Benin City–Lagos		Survived
January 5, 2014	Unknown	Mashhad–Medina (emergency landing due to landing gear failure)	Boeing 767-300ER	Died (body parts fell at an intersection in Mushrefa, Jeddah)
February 22, 2014	Chris Dikeh, Nigerian national	Dakar–Washington, D.C.	Airbus A340-300	Died
April 20, 2014	Yahya Abdi, Somali national, 16	San Jose–Kahului (Hawaiian Airlines Flight 45)	Boeing 767	Survived
June 5, 2014	Male, 17	Sandefjord, Norway–Amsterdam (KLM Cityhopper)	Embraer 190	Died
July 27, 2014	Unknown male teenager	Mali (presumably)–Ramstein Air Base	Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules	Died
March 14, 2015	Unidentified male, 40s	Lagos–New York City (Arik Air flight)	Airbus A340-500	Died (the body was presumed to be in the wheel well from March 11, 2015 when the aircraft had its last flight from New York)
April 7, 2015	Mario Steven Ambarita, 21	Pekanbaru–Jakarta (Garuda Indonesia Flight 177)	Boeing 737-800	Survived
June 19, 2015	Carlito Vale, Mozambican national, 28/29, and unidentified male, 24	Johannesburg–London (British Airways Flight 54)	Boeing 747	Vale died (fell during approach, body recovered from a roof in Richmond). The other survived with injuries and hospitalized.
September 12, 2015	Unidentified stowaway	Nairobi–Amsterdam (Emirates SkyCargo flight)	Boeing 777-200	Died, body discovered upon arrival at Schiphol Airport
January 11, 2016	Unidentified male	São Paulo–Paris (Air France flight)	Boeing 777	Died, body discovered during maintenance operations on the Boeing 777 at Orly Airport