On Sunday, a 16 year old flew from San Jose, California to Hawaii for a 5 and a half hour flight in a wheel of the airplane. The conditions are very dangerous. When flying at about 38,000 feet, the air temperature is around negative 85 degrees. One will pass out because the air is so thin and the brain is starved of oxygen. When the wheels lower when the plane lands, a trap door opens, and one could easily fall. Survival is, of course, possible, evident by our teenage friend. The body can slow the heart rate, breathing, and brain activity, and enter a state resembling hibernation. It helps to be younger to enter this state. Doctors try to recreate this bodily condition when performing open heart surgery on more elderly people. The machinery in the plane can aid survival, as well, like the heat from the wheels. Since 1947, 105 people have stowed away, and 25 made the trip with their lives. The Federal Aviation Administration, who released the data, noted that the rate might be slimmer than that, since some might have fallen from the wheel well. There have been two instances of someone stowing away on a flight within the U.S. A teenager in 2010 died between North Carolina and Boston. The other stowed away in 1972. There are other instances in which someone stowed away on a flight from the U.S. to another country.
This is crazy! I wonder what type of clothing he had on when he was in the wheel in conditions 85 degrees below zero. I hope they didn't make him pay for the flight. I didn't know that people actually stow away on planes. The average survival rate, about 1 in 4, is pretty high, once one thinks about the conditions!
Source: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/04/21/how-did-stowaway-survive-long-cold-flight-to-hawaii-human-body-can-go-into/
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