Someone has picked up a car, someone has picked up a train, have you heard that someone has pickpocketed a plane?
On the afternoon of February 4, 2021, an Airbus A330 cargo plane flying from Nairobi, Kenya, to Stricht, the Netherlands, landed slowly at the airport. Shortly after the plane landed, airport staff unexpectedly spotted a boy hiding in the plane's landing gear.
When the boy was found curled up, pale and severely frostbitten, he was rushed to hospital for treatment.
According to the boy's Kenyan nationality, it is likely that the boy climbed onto the landing gear of the freighter from the Nairobi airport in Kenya and flew to the Netherlands.
So why did the boy pickpocket the plane?
What did he go through during this long flight?
Kenya is located in the southeast of Africa, with a land area of 580,000 square kilometers, a population of about 53.76 million people, and a GDP of 95.8 billion US dollars in 2020, with a per capita GDP of only 1792 US dollars.
Although Kenya's economic conditions are relatively good among African countries, it is still a relatively poor and backward country in the world, with nearly half of the country's population below the poverty line.
For the majority of Kenyans, they have to travel everywhere for a day's livelihood, and Europe is one of the most economically developed regions in the world, becoming the preferred destination for refugees in Africa, the Middle East and other regions.
The 16-year-old boy who pickpocketed the plane was from Kenya, and because his family was relatively poor, he ate a meal and did not eat, which may be the most unusual for most poor Kenyans.
However, the 16-year-old did not want to live a lifetime of poverty, so he had the idea of smuggling into developed Countries in Europe. Because this is how to live a good life, after all, Europe is the paradise that many poor Africans dream of emigrating.
For most Africans smuggling into Europe, there are two main ways: one is to smuggle from the coast of North Africa across the Mediterranean Sea to Italy, Greece and other countries, and then to France, Germany, Britain and other more developed countries. However, the risk of this kind of smuggling is extremely high, and it is often seen that the smuggling boat overturns and the whole ship of stowaways is buried in the sea, and it is very fortunate to be able to reach the other shore alive, and it is very likely to be caught by the patrol boat of the other side.
The second is to smuggle eu countries from Turkey, Belarus and other countries adjacent to the EU from land, but this way of crossing the land border is not only a long way, but also very likely to be blocked on the border and unable to enter, resulting in the failure of smuggling.
Kenya is located in the southeast of Africa, very far from Europe, and it is not easy to successfully smuggle into Europe.
If he smuggled himself by boat from the north African coast to an EU country, he would need to cross the entire African continent from south to north, and it would not be easy to reach the Mediterranean coast alive because of the long distance and extreme danger.
Kenya is bordered by the sea, and if he travels to European countries by boat, it is estimated that he will hardly be able to afford a ticket to Europe.
After some research, the Kenyan boy decided to fly to Europe, but he couldn't afford a plane ticket, so he had to fly for free.
In fact, there are many cases of free flight on the Internet now, that is, secretly hiding on the landing gear of the plane, and then completing the smuggling. However, this method of smuggling is extremely risky, and many people who use this method of smuggling either fall from the sky and die, or are tortured to death by the extremely harsh climatic conditions at high altitude.
According to statistics, since 1947, a total of 105 people around the world have tried to hide in the landing gear of the aircraft to smuggle, but only 25 people survived, with a success rate of only 23.8%.
Although the success rate of this method of smuggling is not high, in order to be able to live a good life, the Kenyan boy still chooses to take a risk and try.
On Feb. 3, as night fell, he climbed over the fence at Nairobi Airport, crossed the tarmac, sneaked under a Turkish Airlines TK6305 cargo flight without anyone noticing, and climbed down the tires into the landing gear compartment.
At that time, he was also afraid in his heart, after all, he had seen someone fall out of the landing gear and fall to his death, and some people died of freezing or suffocation due to low temperatures and lack of oxygen during the flight of the plane, and what was in front of him was an adventure full of unknowns.
To prevent himself from being thrown out of the cabin during takeoff, he clutched the metal rod on the landing gear tightly. When the plane was stable, he withdrew the landing gear, closed the hatch, hid in a small space, and in order to prevent himself from accidentally falling, he still clung to the metal rod on the tire.
As the aircraft flies higher and higher, the temperature at high altitude also drops sharply, and the aircraft generally flies at an altitude of 8000-12000 meters, and at this altitude the temperature is generally around minus 30-50 degrees, which can be described as an extreme cold environment. Previously, there have been cases of being frozen into "popsicles" due to hiding in the landing gear cabin.
Moreover, due to the low air pressure and thin air in the high altitude, the oxygen content is very low, about 20-30% of the ground content, which also causes people to suffocate due to lack of oxygen.
The Turkish Airlines TK6305 cargo flight took off from Nairobi, Kenya, arrived in Turkey for a stopover, then flew to London, England, and then from London to Stricht Airport in the Netherlands. The entire take-off went through two transits and three flights, meaning the Kenyan boy went through multiple high-altitude flights to reach the Netherlands.
By the time he was found, he had developed severe hypothermia, or severe frostbite. When he faced the harsh low temperature of minus tens of degrees, I don't know how he survived. It is very likely that he has long lost consciousness, fallen into a coma, and then regained consciousness and consciousness in the process of stopping on the middle of the way.
Previously, an American teenager hid in the landing gear of an airliner from California to Hawaii, and he was in a coma during the mid-flight, until the plane landed, he recovered consciousness, and was found by the airport ground crew in the process of jumping out of the landing gear compartment to escape.
After flying in the cold and oxygen-deficient environment at high altitudes, for this Kenyan teenager, it can be described as nine deaths. Due to severe frostbite, after being rushed to the hospital for treatment, his health gradually improved, miraculously survived, and applied for asylum with the Dutch immigration department.
A spokesman for Maastricht Airport in the Netherlands said, "The teenager was so lucky to be able to make it to the Netherlands. Dutch police spokesman Marvin also said, "This is simply a miracle."
Dutch police said on Twitter that the boy was in a stable condition and was investigating potential human trafficking related to the stowaways. Later, the Dutch police did not find any clues of human trafficking related to the teenager, and the smuggling case of landing gear on the freighter was only a case, and the Dutch immigration department approved his asylum application.
The surviving Kenyan teenager said in an interview with the media that he thought it was worth it: "Because of my situation and what I have experienced, this is the only option I want to survive." ”
Usually, stowaways like this die from severe cold and lack of oxygen. Since commercial flights fly at altitudes above 10,000 meters, this makes the chances of stowaways' survival slim. The Turkish freighter flew at an altitude of just over 5,700 meters and a speed of 740 kilometers per hour, which may be an important reason why the Kenyan boy was finally able to reach the Netherlands alive.
Although the Kenyan teenager was successful in smuggling a plane, it was a real death, and after experiencing this cold and oxygen-deficient environmental injury, the body may be left with severe post-traumatic sequelae. For example, in 2004, a Teenager from Hunan, China, flew from Kunming to the landing gear warehouse and flew to Chongqing, after which the eyes, ears, legs and feet all had sequelae: the eyes often could not see clearly, the legs and feet often cramped, and the ears also suffered from aviation otitis media.
Although Europe is a paradise on earth in the minds of African refugees, hundreds of thousands of African refugees enter European countries through illegal immigration channels every year and live the good life they dream of. However, thousands of refugees have also lost their lives in the process of smuggling, and the method of smuggling by air landing gear is arguably the method with the highest mortality rate, and it is really not recommended to achieve the purpose of smuggling to Europe.