Caligula
12-10-02, 07:07 AM
Cuban sneaks into Canada hidden under airplane
Last Updated Mon, 09 Dec 2002 21:49:45
MONTREAL - Canadian immigration officials say a Cuban man is lucky to be alive after spending four hours in the wheel well of an airliner.
The man was arrested on Friday after he emerged from underneath a plane at Montreal's Dorval Airport.
The details of his frightening journey came out at a detention hearing on Monday.
Robert Gervis
Robert Gervais, spokesman for the Department of Immigration, said security at Dorval saw a man climb down from underneath an airliner that had arrived from Havana.
Gervais says the man was stumbling, "he was exhausted, we feared he had hypothermia, and he was directed to the hospital immediately by ambulance."
But the stowaway was released into immigration custody after a few hours.
The flight between Havana and Montreal takes about four hours.
Yvan-Miville Deschenes, a former air traffic controller and an expert on civil aviation, says he's surprised the man wasn't crushed when the landing gear retracted after takeoff.
Deschenes says the temperature at cruising altitude would be about -50 C. "It's a miracle that this individual did not die in the process. It's not a very large area, it is not a pressurized area, and it is not a heated area."
The stowaway cannot be identified because of an immigration commissioner's order. But after his hearing he explained how he survived the flight.
He says there are tubes in the wheel wells filled with hot air. By covering the tubes he was able to have a little heat and oxygen. He says he made it through the shock of the landing by holding on as hard as he could.
"Thanks to God," he says, "I survived."
He's luckier than others who have tried the same method.
Some have been seriously injured or frozen to death. Others have fallen to their deaths when the landing gear was lowered.
The man will be held in custody for at least a week. Government officials say they aren't convinced his refugee claim is genuine. And they fear that he won't show up at his next hearing if they let him go.
Last Updated Mon, 09 Dec 2002 21:49:45
MONTREAL - Canadian immigration officials say a Cuban man is lucky to be alive after spending four hours in the wheel well of an airliner.
The man was arrested on Friday after he emerged from underneath a plane at Montreal's Dorval Airport.
The details of his frightening journey came out at a detention hearing on Monday.
Robert Gervis
Robert Gervais, spokesman for the Department of Immigration, said security at Dorval saw a man climb down from underneath an airliner that had arrived from Havana.
Gervais says the man was stumbling, "he was exhausted, we feared he had hypothermia, and he was directed to the hospital immediately by ambulance."
But the stowaway was released into immigration custody after a few hours.
The flight between Havana and Montreal takes about four hours.
Yvan-Miville Deschenes, a former air traffic controller and an expert on civil aviation, says he's surprised the man wasn't crushed when the landing gear retracted after takeoff.
Deschenes says the temperature at cruising altitude would be about -50 C. "It's a miracle that this individual did not die in the process. It's not a very large area, it is not a pressurized area, and it is not a heated area."
The stowaway cannot be identified because of an immigration commissioner's order. But after his hearing he explained how he survived the flight.
He says there are tubes in the wheel wells filled with hot air. By covering the tubes he was able to have a little heat and oxygen. He says he made it through the shock of the landing by holding on as hard as he could.
"Thanks to God," he says, "I survived."
He's luckier than others who have tried the same method.
Some have been seriously injured or frozen to death. Others have fallen to their deaths when the landing gear was lowered.
The man will be held in custody for at least a week. Government officials say they aren't convinced his refugee claim is genuine. And they fear that he won't show up at his next hearing if they let him go.