Abidjan, Dutch police say they found a stowaway in the wheel section of a plane that landed at Amsterdam Schiphol airport from South Africa, it was reported on Monday January 24, 2022 Royal Netherlands Military Police Spokesperson Joanna Helmonds.

Conscious and able to communicate, this 22-year-old man from Kenya is currently receiving medical treatment in hospital. The flights between Johannesburg and Amsterdam last about 11 hours and the cargo plane would have made a single stopover, in Nairobi (Kenya).

It is very rare that stowaways on long-haul flights rarely survive, due to extremely cold temperatures and lack of oxygen at high altitudes. “He is expected to apply for asylum in the Netherlands, but his medical treatment is the priority at the moment. The man was found alive in the nose wheel section of the aircraft and was taken to hospital in stable condition,” the spokeswoman said.

According to Dutch broadcaster NOS, the man’s body temperature rose at the scene and when an ambulance arrived he was able to answer basic questions. The stowaway was on a flight operated by Cargolux Italia. According to the data, Cargolux’s only cargo flight from Johannesburg to Schiphol on Sunday January 23 also made a stopover in Nairobi. It is therefore not known whether the man boarded the plane in South Africa or Kenya.

In the past five years, seven stowaways have been discovered on planes in the Netherlands, only two of whom were alive.

Source: Agence Ivoirienne de Presse