For the week that the story broke of a Russian man who made it from Copenhagen to Los Angeles without a passport, visa or boarding pass, here are some famous stowaways aviation history:
- Keith Byrne and Noel Murray (1985). On a day mitching from school, Keith Byrne (10) and Noel Murray (13) snuck on board a Dublin to Holyhead ferry and then ended up sneaking on board a flight from Dublin to New York. Thy landed in JFK before a suspicious immigration officer detected their presence. When questioned why they did it, Keith stated he wanted to see his favourite tv star, Mr T.
- Clarence Terhune (1928): Clarence, a 19-year-old American, became one of the first aviation stowaways when he hid aboard the LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin airship flying from the US to Germany. Although he was soon discovered, he was embraced by Germany, and his daring feat thrilled and amused the Germans. He even received a job offer at a department store in Aachen while the airship was still flying over the Atlantic.
- Landing gear stowaway (2010): In June 2010, a 20-year-old Romanian man survived extreme cold temperatures of -41C inside the landing gear of a Boeing 747 aircraft on a 97-minute flight from Vienna to London Heathrow. He managed to slip under a perimeter fence at Vienna Airport and climbed into a wheel compartment of an empty privately-owned aircraft. Due to thunderstorms, the plane flew at a lower altitude of 25,000ft, which allowed him to survive.
- Nigerian with multiple boarding passes: Last year, a Nigerian man named Olajide Olwaseun Noibi managed to board a Virgin Atlantic flight from New York to Los Angeles using an expired boarding pass. Despite the invalid pass, he successfully boarded the plane. This incident led to his apprehension in LA after he attempted to board a second flight using the same invalid document. Police discovered ten additional boarding passes with different names in his possession.
- Habib Hussain, the crafty cleaner (2009): In 2009, a 25-year-old man named Habib Hussain, who worked at Medina Airport in Saudi Arabia, boarded an aircraft bound for Jaipur, India by pretending to be a cleaner. He hid in the restroom and was only discovered after takeoff when another passenger tried to use the facilities.
- Roberto Viza Egües, fleeing to Paris (2000): Roberto managed to escape from Cuba on August 12, 2000, by hiding in an Air France cargo container at Havana Airport. He arrived in Paris the following day, experiencing exposure but otherwise unharmed. Unfortunately, his application for asylum was denied, and he was eventually deported back to Cuba.
