NAIROBI, Kenya Jan 26 – Police in the Dutch city of Amsterdam discovered a stowaway hidden in the nose wheel of a cargo plane arriving from South Africa, a spokeswoman said Sunday.
The man. who authorities said is a Kenyam is believed to have slipped onboard the plane before it left Johannesburg, Royal Dutch Military Police spokeswoman Joanne Helmonds said.
The plane is said to have made a stopover at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi.
“The man was found alive in the nosewheel section of the plane and was taken to hospital in a stable condition,” she told AFP.
Helmonds said police had opened a probe into the incident.
“It is quite remarkable that the man is still alive,” he said.
In Nairobi, Police Spokesman Bruno Shiosho said an investigation had been opened to determine if indeed he originated from Kenya.
Flight times between Johannesburg and Amsterdam average about 11 hours.
Stowaways on flights to the Netherlands are rare, he added, noting that previous attempts had involved would-be migrants from Nigeria and Kenya.
Last year, border police discovered the body of a Nigerian man in the landing gear of a plane arriving at Schiphol airport.
