미국소년, 비행기 바퀴에 숨어 하와이까지

(유투브 캡쳐)

미국의 한 가출 청소년이 비행기 바퀴 홈에 숨어 5시간에 걸쳐 하와이까지 간 일이 발생했다.

공항당국에 따르면 이 16세 소년은 캘리포니아에서 하와이로 가는 비행기의 바퀴 홈에 숨어 안전하게 목적지에 도착했다고 밝혔다. 그는 산호세 공항에서 담을 넘어 하와이 항공사 비행기 바퀴에 숨어 약 5시간 반 동안 산소가 거의 없고 ‘얼어 죽을 정도로’ 추운 환경을 견뎌냈다고 한다

고도 38,000 피트를 견뎠음에도 불구하고 소년에게는 별 다른 외상도 없었으며 단지 5시간 반 동안 거의 의식이 없는 상태였을 것이라고 FBI 대변인 사이먼 (Simon)이 전했다.

바퀴 홈에서 숨어 있으면 높은 고도, 산소 부족 환경 및 낮은 온도를 견뎌내는 사람들은 실제로 거의 없다. 2012년 앙골라 (Angola)에서 영국으로 가는 비행기 바퀴에 숨은 26살 청년이 떨어져서 숨진 것도 그러한 예다.

미국 소년이 죽지 않은 것은 거의 기적에 가깝다. 그는 항공사 직원들에게 발견됐으며 처벌되지 않고 아동센터로 보내질 예정이다.

(코리아헤럴드 조한나 인턴 기자 hnncho@heraldcorp.com)

(유투브 캡쳐)

US teen survives five-hour flight in jet's wheel well

A US teenager was lucky to be alive Monday after surviving a bone-chilling, low-oxygen flight from California to Hawaii in a jet's wheel well, authorities said.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation identified the stowaway as a 16-year-old male who climbed the fence at a San Jose airport.

He then snuck into the wheel well of a Hawaiian Airlines plane bound for Maui, FBI spokesman Tom Simon told AFP.

The youngster, who ran away from home, endured freezing temperatures and a lack of oxygen aboard the five-and-a-half hour flight, which reached an altitude of some 38,000 feet, he said.

Miraculously, the teen lived to tell.

"He was observed coming out of the plane in Maui, the FBI interviewed him and handed him out to child protective services," Simon said, adding the youth was not being charged with a crime in Hawaii.

However, "if California decides to charge him with a crime, that's up to them," he said.

Security video footage from the Mineta International Airport in San Jose showed the youngster hopping a fence and making his way to Hawaiian Airlines Flight 45, where he climbed, undetected, into the wheel well of the aircraft.

With oxygen scarce and temperatures well below freezing, Simon said the teenager appears to have been unconscious "for pretty much the entire" flight.

The aircraft landed mid morning Sunday at Maui's Kahului Airport, and the youth, who did not regain consciousness for another hour, woke up, and hopped down onto the tarmac. At that point, Hawaiian Airlines personnel noticed him.

While it is not unheard of, it is extremely rare to survive a flight in the wheel well of an aircraft. Many who try, end up freezing to death or succumbing to a lack of oxygen.

In one such case, the body of a 26-year-old was found crumpled on a suburban London street in 2012 after he apparently climbed aboard a British Airways plane in Angola and fell from the wheel well as the aircraft prepared to land at Heathrow Airport. (AFP)