Aviation Experts Describe Stowaway Teenager’s Survival As Miraculous

Experts in the aviation industry have described as a miracle, the survival of a teenage stowaway, Daniel Oikhena, who hid in the wheel compartment of Arik Air aircraft used for flight W3 544 from Benin Airport to the Murtala Muhammed Airport, MMA, Lagos.

The teenager who apparently beat security checks at the airport to get into the wheel well of the aircraft was arrested by Arik Air personnel and handed over to Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, security upon arrival at the Murtala Muhammed. Airport, Lagos when he came out of hiding.

Speaking on Daniel’s miraculous survival, an aviation expert and Managing Director of Belujane Consult, Mr. Chris Aligbe said there was no expert in the aviation industry that could give a satisfactory explanation to what happened. He however noted that the boy’s survival could be as a result of the short distance that the plane flew, noting that from Benin to Lagos airport was just 35 minutes of flight time, and also the aircraft did not ascend high into the sky as it only flew at 10,000 feet above sea level. Aligbe stressed that if the distance was a long haul flight, like from Lagos to London, the teenager would have frozen to death, stressing that the higher an aircraft ascends into the sky, the cooler the nose wheel compartment becomes, as he noted that was the major reason why people that stowed away from Lagos to other parts of the world are found dead upon arrival at their destination. In such cases he said, the airline staff often found the corpses of such people on landing.

“There is no aviation experts that can give you a satisfactory explanation on the incident. The nostril of the aircraft is not designed for anybody to stay in. The boy’s survival was miraculously done by God because the aircraft could have crushed the boy when the plane was retracting its tyres.” “Although the hole is a bit wide, it is not meant for anybody to stay in. There is no scientific explanation to it, there is no aviation expert or technology that could explain how that boy survived onboard that aircraft.” Also speaking, Chairman of Aviation Round Table, ART, Captain Dele Ore, explained that the boy survived because of his size and more so, the flight was for a short distance which was not more than 10,000 feet.  Ore said based on the small size of the boy, he was not crushed to death on the wheels where he hid himself. The ART chairman further said had the flight been a place like United States of America, the plane would have flown above 25,000- 35000 feet, the boy would have died in five minutes because the place he hid himself was not a pressurized area.