‘I was depressed for 6 years’: When 2 Punjab brothers hid in plane landing gear, one lived to tell the tale | Chandigarh News
NEW DELHI: A 13-year-old Afghan boy caused a security scare at Delhi Airport on Sunday morning after hiding in the landing gear of a Kam Air flight from Kabul. The Kabul-Delhi aircraft landed at around 11.10 am on 21 September, when airline staff spotted the boy near the plane. He had boarded the flight RQ-4401 without a ticket by concealing himself in the aircraft’s undercarriage, according to news agency ANI. Airline personnel noticed the teenager wandering near the aircraft shortly after arrival. Security officials questioned him and discovered the extraordinary way he had made the journey. During a detailed inspection of the plane, Kam Air’s security and engineering teams also recovered a small red audio speaker from the landing gear area. The boy was taken into custody for questioning by relevant agencies. After formal procedures were completed, he was sent back to Kabul later the same day on Kam Air’s return flight, RQ-4402. The incident recalls a far more tragic event from three decades ago. In 1996, two brothers from India’s Punjab attempted a similar journey to the UK.The tale of two Punjab brothers According to a 2003 report in The Times of India, Pradeep Saini, 23, and Vijay Saini, 19, hid in the wheel well of a British Airways plane at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport. Their aim was to reach London without a visa or sufficient funds. Pradeep Saini survived the ordeal, but his younger brother did not. Vijay Saini died from hypothermia en route, falling 2,000 feet as the plane prepared to land in West London. Pradeep Saini later recounted the trauma. “I was in a depression for six years. If the two of us died, then it’s one thing, or if both of us lived, it’s another story. But I lost my younger brother. He was like a friend to me. We grew up playing together,” he told The Mail in 2019. The incident shocked Britain at the time. Pradeep Saini survived a 10-hour flight, arriving disoriented on the runway and hospitalised for severe hypothermia before being taken into custody.
