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Man survives flight in 747 undercarriage
Published: June 10, 2010 at 12:52 PM
LONDON, June 10 (UPI) -- A 20-year-old Romanian stowaway seeking a new life and a job survived a 97-minute flight to London from Vienna in a Boeing 747 wheel well, authorities said.
The unidentified man, who had had "enough" of Vienna and hid aboard the private jumbo jet, which had no passengers, not knowing its destination, was arrested after the plane landed at London Heathrow Airport, police said.
He apparently tumbled out of the wheel well after the aircraft landed, The Times of London reported.
He had climbed into the rear undercarriage of the wide-body airliner, owned by a United Arab Emirates sheik after crawling under the perimeter fence of Vienna International Airport, The Times said.
Aviation authorities said the stowaway was lucky he wasn't crushed by the wheels after takeoff or thrown out as the plane prepared to land.
The man was also fortunate bad weather forced the pilot to fly lower than the usual altitude of 37,000 feet, where a lack of oxygen and temperatures about 40 degrees below zero probably would have killed him.
He could have entered Britain legally as a European Union citizen and applied for permission to work, authorities said.
The British Border and Immigration Agency does not plan to deport him, The Times said.
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