Afghan Teen Survives Perilous Flight From Kabul to Delhi Hidden in Landing Gear
A 13-year-old Afghan boy survived an extraordinary and highly dangerous journey from Kabul to Delhi by hiding inside the landing gear compartment of a Kam Air passenger plane. According to officials, the teen from Kunduz in northern Afghanistan was discovered wandering the runway at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport after the aircraft landed on Monday morning.
Security personnel from India’s Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) detained the boy and questioned him for several hours before returning him to Kabul on the same flight. He reportedly told authorities he had stowed away “out of curiosity” and was unaware that the plane was bound for Delhi rather than Tehran, which had been his intended destination.
Investigators say the boy managed to slip past security at Kabul airport by trailing a group of passengers and hiding in the aircraft’s rear wheel well — the compartment that houses the landing gear. Airline staff later found a small red audio speaker among his belongings during post-flight inspections.
Stowing away in an aircraft’s landing gear is almost always fatal due to extreme cold, oxygen deprivation, and the risk of falling when the landing gear deploys. Aviation experts note that very few survive such journeys; in 2022, a 22-year-old Kenyan man was found alive in the wheel well of a cargo plane in Amsterdam.
The incident highlights the continuing security challenges at Afghan airports and the desperation or curiosity driving some young people to attempt life-threatening escapes.
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