Refugee frozen to death in Brussels Airlines landing gear

sn-remember · Post by **sn-remember** » 17 Jan 2007, 16:30

Back in the sixties (I was a child at that time) I remember having been very much impressed by a similar "accident".
It was a stowaway from Cuba that arrived half frozen and half dead at Barajas inside the landing gear of an IB DC8 flight if I remember well.
He was lucky to survive !

More technically, a simple question :
Since that sort of "accidents" tend to multiply, why don't the aircrafft manufacturers place detectors at such places where a stowaway could take refuge. That could alert the pilot before takeoff.

Post by **Bruspotter** » 19 Jan 2007, 21:45

Hello

TCAS-Climb

next time I go to Cotonou I'll seriously kick the butt of a former Air Afrique station manager:

Oh how I would like to see that!!!

:D:P Go and do it

Can fully understand your point of view , what's better? Taking the Cargo on another flight or crash with all the pax AND the cargo that he REALLY wanted to board

Well , at least it's an extra expierence and a warning for next time so you know that you might have to recheck it next time to ensure they don't sneak it in the next time.

Best regards: Yannick

FlyA330 · Post by **FlyA330** » 20 Jan 2007, 11:24

They think that the guy climbed into the landing gear compartment when the A330 was stuck at the end of the runway in Banjul and had to be pulled back by a fire truck with ropes.
Due to a mistake, the airplane was to far at the end of the runway to make a 180° turn and had to be pulled back. It took a long time for this and a lot of airport personnel were around the airplane. At that time, they could climb into the bay without being seen by the tower or security.
The airplane was also on minimum fuel for the flight to Dakar (very smart !!!) and had to refuel again. This took also more than an hour because the fuel guy was already on his way home and more...they had also problems with the refueling truck... It was a 15 hour day for the crew !!

Post by **Bruspotter** » 20 Jan 2007, 16:57

Hello

Sounds like one big 'KLUCHT' over there

. If you say that the refueling guy was already on the way home , couldn't they let some other refuelers do the job? Or is there only one person authoritized for that job over there? It makes me think they only receive several planes a day (SNBA 330 as last one?)

Best regards: Yannick

FlyA330 · Post by **FlyA330** » 21 Jan 2007, 16:37

You simply can't compare a small African airport (Banjul is very small) with a European one. They are less organised and not as good equiped. Sometimes they only have one fuel truck (and this one was not working 100%) or only one external power unit, etc... On some airports they even steal the approach lights (at Kinshasa only a small amount inside the airport perimeter is still working, the rest is simply gone)

jan_olieslagers · Post by **jan_olieslagers** » 21 Jan 2007, 18:09

C_J wrote:We should realise that the real problem is not the fact that this guy was in the landing gear, but the reason for his act of despair. People in West Africa (and other parts of the continent/world) risk their life just to get away from continuing poverty (see the Canary Islands). Think about it!

At the risk of going off-topic and/or being politically incorrect: if you consider the guy had no idea he could never survive his flight, what was his idea of Europe? "Everybody is rich there, they all ride Mercedes and have big house! Me too will ride mercedes and have big house, me go to Europe!" Is that despair? It looks more like naive ignorance, to me. Anyone taking a flight in an airliner's landing gear bay is clearly ignorant. So all my sympathy goes with him, as it goes with the Canary boat travellers - but may I ask who is responsible for their poverty and ignorance? Not their own governments, surely?

(admins: please feel free to remove this posting, I allow it is off-topic. But please also remove the one I am responding to, then)

C_J · Post by **C_J** » 21 Jan 2007, 22:18

jan_olieslagers wrote:At the risk of going off-topic and/or being politically incorrect: if you consider the guy had no idea he could never survive his flight, what was his idea of Europe? "Everybody is rich there, they all ride Mercedes and have big house! Me too will ride mercedes and have big house, me go to Europe!" Is that despair? It looks more like naive ignorance, to me. Anyone taking a flight in an airliner's landing gear bay is clearly ignorant. So all my sympathy goes with him, as it goes with the Canary boat travellers - but may I ask who is responsible for their poverty and ignorance? Not their own governments, surely?

I do not fully understand what you try to say with this post. Isn't their an opportunity that this guy was desperate and ignorant (about his chances to survive)? Do you really think that those refugees come to Europe with the idea of becoming rich? I don't know enough about this case to respond this question. And indeed, we would go off-topic searching for the responsibles. Perhaps we should open a politics forum (is this allowed?), running the risk of a lot of agressive posts of course (so I don't think this would be a good idea)... Enough going off-topic now!

Flybe · Post by **Flybe** » 21 Jan 2007, 22:55

"Everybody is rich there, they all ride Mercedes and have big house! Me too will ride mercedes and have big house, me go to Europe!" Is that despair?

*sigh*, I first wanted to reply on this post, but I don't want to get involved in an endless discussion about this. Please remember that this is an aviation forum, and such remarks belong (politicly correct or not) in fora on politics, not here. One last thing though: reading such remarks, I wonder who's sometimes ignorant (about the actual situation in some countries).

Admins, feel free to delete my reply if judged appropriate to do so.

Pieter