konknaijaboy | On 28, Aug 2013

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.

(SEE) Mother Of Boy Hiding In Tyre Of Arik Plane

The mother of the 13-year-old stowaway, Ricky Daniel Ohikhena, who on Friday hid in the tyrecompartment of an Arik plane on a flight from Benin to Lagos, was on Monday quizzed for hours by a combined team of security operatives from the Department of State Security Service and aviation security.

The mother, Evelyn, who confirmed that she was quizzed by the SSS operatives, said her son was a nice boy who never displayed any tendency for such a dangerous venture.

An embattled Evelyn said Daniel was a nice boy who did not mingle with bad friends.

She said, “My son answers Daniel in school and Ricky at home. I went to my elder sister’s place who put to bed and when I got home the next morning (Saturday), I couldn’t find him. My daughter told me that they quarrelled in the night because he woke at midnight to watch movies and she told him to stop watching movie in the night and she said he eventually slept in the parlour while she said she went back to sleep in the room.

“One of his younger brothers said he saw him remove all his school books from his bag; so I asked my neighbours whether any of them saw him and they told me that at around 5 to 6 am, they heard sounds that somebody was opening the gate but never thought it was my son. He doesn’t go out. What I know is that he is always watching films in the house but he doesn’t have friends.

“I went to Oba Market police station, they referred me to Evbuotubu police station, when I got there they said they will declare him missing after 24 hours and that I should come back the next day.”

Speaking on the type of person her son is, Evelyn said, “He is always at home, I have never seen anybody come to look for him and he doesn’t have friends. I am begging the government to help me, because I have never been to the airport before, I have been to Lagos before so they should help me. I don’t know how he manage to get there but I just thank God that he is alive.