66.The Countdown to the Flight Beyond All Hope!

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!

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