The
jet is soaring high. I am in a window seat, my favorite place in any mode of
transport. I glance at the LCD display on the back of the front seat. It says
37000ft. and -37˚C. I look out of the
porthole at the wing that is shuddering in the turbulence. Anyone out there on
the wing, even the super man would have frozen to death.
Suddenly,
I think of the ‘Drama In real Life’ story I read in a Reader’s Digest
so many years back, about two boys who hid in the landing gear bay of a jet and tried to fly out of the
country. Was his name Miguel? I remember it had some Spanish ring to it.
The
landing gear bay or the undercarriage compartment or wheel well, whatever you
call it is neither heated nor pressurized. In addition, there is no oxygen
supply. How did they survive? I made a mental note to find this story and read
again when I get home to my RD collection. Well I can blog it in Hey Dude and
My Blue Jeans.
What
I discovered later, when I Googled ‘wheel well stowaway’ to get to that story,
totally swept me off my feet.
They were not the only ones!
The
records go all the way back to 1947. Since then, 96 people have tried hiding in
the wheel wells of 85 flights and 73 of them didn’t make it. Only 23 survived the
ordeal. And, the youngest was only nine years old. One person survived the
cruising altitude of 39,000ft.
Please standby for henryblogwalker original.
Flight Beyond All Hope!
Coming up next...
