A STOWAWAY who hid in the front wheel section of a jumbo jet survived a brutal 11-hour journey from South Africa to the Netherlands.
Dutch military police said the man was found yesterday in the wheel section below the fuselage.
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The stowaway had squeezed himself in a wheel section of a Cargolux Boeing 747 Credit: Getty 3
The man was found by authorities at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport Credit: Getty
Miraculously the stowaway on the Cargolux 747 freight plane was found in good condition despite the arduous journey after arriving at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport.
Dutch military police said: "The man is doing well considering the circumstances and has been taken to a hospital.”
Marechausse spokeswoman Joanna Helmonds said the man's age and nationality had not yet been determined.
She said: "Our first concern of course was for his health.
"This is definitely very unusual that someone was able to survive the cold at such a height — very, very unusual."
A spokesperson for freight carrier Cargolux confirmed in an email that the stowaway had been on a flight operated by Cargolux Italia.
They said: "We are not in a position to make any further comment until the authorities and the airline have completed their investigation.”
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The only Cargolux freight flight arriving at Schiphol on Sunday was a Boeing 747 freighter that travelled from Johannesburg and made a stop in Nairobi, Kenya, according to Schiphol's website and flight tracking data.
A spokesperson for the airport declined to answer questions about the incident.
Last year a stoway survived a 5,600-mile flight by clinging to a jumbo jet wheel at -60C — while his mate plunged to his death.
Themba Cabeka, 30, held on to the jet's undercarriage for the entire 11-hour flight from South Africa to London Heathrow in 2015.
A stowaway was allegedly found in the landing gear of a plane after hiding on a flight from Guatemala to Miami was captured on video on Saturday.
In 2019 a body of a stowaway migrant plunged 3,500ft to his death into a back garden in Clapham, London, while a tenant was sunbathing.
Horror footage appears to show stowaways falling to death after clinging to outside of plane as thousands flee Taliban