Posted on 12/11/2002 5:50:50 PM PST by fone
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Montreal - A Cuban man who hid in the wheel compartment of a DC-10 jet wrapped his shirt around heating pipes to survive temperatures of nearly 40 below zero and avoid falling out during the four-hour flight to Canada.
"I consider myself very lucky to have survived. Thank God," the stowaway, in his 20s, said Monday night after his first appearance before the refugee panel.
The man, who cannot be identified by name under a publication ban imposed by Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board, has been ordered held until a hearing Friday.
Robert Gervais, a spokesman for the Citizenship and Immigration Department, said the man could be granted conditional release while he seeks refugee status, similar to political asylum in the United States.
"Concerning his refugee claim, that will be heard by the refugee board probably several months from now," Gervais said yesterday.
Canada adheres to the U.N. convention on refugees in deciding such cases, requiring a well-founded fear of persecution based on race, nationality, religion, political belief or social affiliation.
An airport worker at the Havana airport, the man climbed into the wheel well of Cubana Flight 170 before it departed for Cayo Coco resort en route to Montreal last Friday.
During the flight, he said, he embraced a heating pipe, wrapping his shirt around it to hold on and get as much warmth as possible. Aviation experts say the temperature in the hold probably was around minus 40 degrees with little oxygen at an altitude of 30,000 feet.
"I kept my face close to it [the pipe], and that helped me to breathe," he told news channel LCN.
"I thought that certain parts of my body would freeze. But when the airplane descended, I warmed up."
© 2002 The Plain Dealer.
So that's what they mean by COLD as a well-digger's arse!
That is very strange. Is there another case on record of someone surviving altitudes above 15k feet for hours on end?
< /sarcasm>
This year, the body of a stowaway, believed to be from Africa, was found in the wheel compartment of a freight plane at London's Heathrow Airport. He is believed to have frozen to death.***
The Associated Press*** L O S A N G E L E S, Aug. 5 - A nearly frozen stowaway survived subzero temperatures and little oxygen at 38,000 feet inside the wheel well of a jumbo jet on an eight-hour flight from Tahiti. The 6-foot, 180-pound man, who remains unidentified, was responding to treatment and communicating with doctors Friday, but he was covered with gear oil and moaning when paramedics arrived at Los Angeles International Airport Thursday night. His core body temperature was 79 degrees Fahrenheit when he arrived at the UCLA Medical Center for treatment of hypothermia and dehydration, hospital spokesman David Langness said. With the jet traveling 600 mph at 38,000 feet, the air temperature would have been below zero, "and who knows with the wind chill," Langness said.
'A Remarkable Story' "His clothes were shredded from the wind, and he was covered with grease," he said. "It is a remarkable story. We don't know of any other person whose body temperature dropped this low who has survived." Anything below 85 degrees Fahrenheit is usually fatal, Langness said. The man was moved Friday afternoon from the intensive care unit to a hospital ward floor, Langness said. The man is able to write notes in French and English but responds indirectly when asked about his identity, Langness said. He cannot speak, and doctors are still testing his brain and organ functions. Air France Flight 71 from Papeete, French Polynesia, arrived in Los Angeles. At the terminal gate, a maintenance worker spotted a blanket hanging from a wheel well on the Boeing 747-400 and notified authorities when he found the man.***
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