A man flew inside the nose wheel of a cargo plane on a flight from Africa to Amsterdam and survived, according to police.
The man has been identified as a 22-year-old from Nairobi, Kenya, according to the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee, one of two national police forces in the Netherlands
“He has applied for asylum in the Netherlands,”According to police
Authorities said they are investigating if the incident has any possible links to human smuggling.
The flight the man flew on was operated by Cargolux Italia and took off in Johannesburg, South Africa, before making a stop in Nairobi, according to reports.
Authorities believe the man entered the plane in Johannesburg. The flight took approximately 11 hours.
“Our first concern of course was for his health,”Joanne Helmonds spoke on behalf of the Royal Dutch Military Police. “This is definitely very unusual that someone was able to survive the cold at such a height — very, very unusual.”
She said that although incidents like this are rare, there have been cases in the past with migrants from Kenya and Nigeria.
A Nigerian man was discovered by border police last year in the landing gear on a plane that arrived at Schiphol airport.
Another case involved an alleged stowaway who fell from a Kenya Airways flight in England to his death.