Stowaway survives 2hrs @ 30,000 ft

On Oct 16, 10:12 am, Ed wrote:
From The Sunday Times
October 14, 2007
Boy stowaway survives at -58F
Anna Voutsen, Perm

A RUSSIAN boy has described how he survived a two-hour
flight at temperatures of -58F, hidden in the wheel well of
a passenger airliner.

Andrei Shcherbakov, 15, from a village in the Urals, climbed
into the bottom of a Russian Tu-154 airliner parked on the
apron of Perm airport, 800 miles east of Moscow, after
leaving home without telling his parents.

He said he was passionate about planes, but once he had
inspected the inside of the wheel well he felt so tired from
two days of wandering around that he fell asleep in it.

"I thought the plane was parked there for maintenance and
didn't realise it was scheduled to take off," said Andrei,
who is now in hospital recovering from severe frostbite to
both hands.

He denied Russian press reports that he had run away from
home after a family row. "I just wanted to check out the
wheel well from the inside. I've always been fascinated by
planes," he said. "I don't know how long I slept for, but
suddenly I was woken up by the deafening noise of the engine.

"I looked down and realised that the plane was accelerating
onto the runway. I thought of trying to jump off but was
frightened. I thought I would freeze to death if I stayed on
but I was too scared to jump off because I thought I'd be
crushed. So I stayed on and huddled."

Andrei, who was wearing jeans, two shirts, a jacket and
sports shoes, said that shortly after takeoff, when the
pilot raised the wheels, he lost consciousness. The plane
reached an altitude of nearly 30,000ft.

The boy said he eventually woke up but only fully understood
what he had been through on landing in Moscow.

Shaking and barely able to move, he managed to climb out of
the wheel well and onto the tarmac. He was stopped by
astonished airport staff as he made his way towards the
terminal.

Andrei was handed over to police who quickly called an
ambulance and he was taken to hospital. Several of his
fingers are black and his hands are bandaged.

"People say that it's impossible to survive such a flight,"
said Andrei. "I don't know what to say but I did it. I
didn't mean to end up travelling like that and I know I'm
lucky to be alive. Maybe it hasn't sunk in. Right now I'm
concentrating on getting my hands back. I'm slowly starting
to feel them again. I hope it will be okay."

In a similar escape five years ago, an illegal immigrant
from Cuba managed to fly to Montreal's Dorval airport from
Havana, a journey of more than four hours, and survive.
Experts said it was a miracle that he was not crushed by the
landing gear.

Can we book Petzl on one of these type of flights ?