VANGUARD
Fresh facts have emerged about how a dead stowaway was discovered in the nose wheel well of a KLM Royal Dutch Airlines Boeing 777 (registered PH- BQM) originating from Lagos last Monday.
The development has raised serious concerns regarding airport security and how the man managed to climb into the aircraft at the airport apron, an area highly restricted.
However, Saturday Vanguard gathered that the aircraft which arrived from Toronto took off from the Murtala Muhammed International Airport for Schipol in Amsterdam.
A stowaway or clandestine traveller is a person who secretly boards a vehicle, such as a ship, or an aircraft amongst others.
It would be recalled that a similar incident happened in 2021 when border police found the body of a Nigerian man in the landing gear of a plane arriving at Schiphol Airport.
However, findings showed that the traveller might have died of hypothermia, a medical emergency that occurs when your body loses heat faster than it can produce heat, causing a dangerously low body temperature
According to a spokesperson from the Royal Dutch Marechaussee, “Sometimes they survive, but most of the time it goes wrong given the sharp drop in temperature. On longer flights, temperatures can go down to minus fifty degrees, impossible to survive.”
Following the development, the airline in a statement stated that the dead stowaway was discovered in the wheel well of the KLM Royal Dutch Airlines Boeing 777 (registered PH-BQM on Monday, April 17th, 2023.
