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A stowaway or clandestine traveller is a person who secretly boards a vehicle, such as a ship, an aircraft, a train, truck or bus.
Sometimes, the purpose is to get from one place to another without paying for transportation. In other cases, the goal is to enter another country without first obtaining a travel visa or other permission. Stowaways differ from people smuggling in that the stowaway needs to avoid detection by the truck driver, ship crew, and others responsible for the safe and secure operation of the transportation service.
Thousands of stowaways have travelled by sea or land over the last several centuries. A much smaller number of people have attempted to stowaway on aircraft. Many stowaways have died during the attempt, especially in cases of train surfing and wheel-well stowaway flights.
The word was also used (later) for people. This gave names such as stow-aways, when the correct current name in modern English language is stowaway. Depending on the circumstances, people were stowed away in order to hide themselves, or to be transported as slaves. The concept of people hiding is not so recent; it was yet forbidden (and so known) in 1748 by king of Spain, under the polizón denomination.
"A person who is secreted on a ship, or in cargo which is subsequently loaded on the ship, without the consent of the shipowner or the master or any other responsible person and who is detected on board the ship after it has departed from a port, or in the cargo while unloading it in the port of arrival, and is reported as a stowaway by the master to the appropriate authorities".Unnoticed by the Sea captain, crew, port officials and customs authorities, stowaways may gain access to a ship with or without the assistance of port personnel. Once on board the ship, stowaways hide in empty containers, cargo holds, tanks, tunnels, behind false panels, stores, accommodation areas, engine rooms, void spaces, cranes and chain lockers.
The presence of stowaways on board ships may bring serious consequences for ships and, by extension, to the shipping industry as a whole; the ship could be delayed in port; the repatriation of stowaways can be a very complex and costly procedure involving masters, shipowners, port authorities and agents, and the life of stowaways could be endangered as they may spend several days hidden, with the risk of suffocation and without any food or water.
Stowaways typically board the ship while it is in port. This can be by the gangway or by climbing the ships side when the crew are not maintaining an adequate security watch of the vessel. To prevent stowaways on ships, the International Chamber of Shipping and Witherbys provide guidance to ships on managing the risks associated with stowaways and with rescue of displaced persons at sea. The International Maritime Organization have also issued revised guidelines for the prevention of access by stowaways.
Stowaways in aircraft wheel wells face numerous health risks, many of which are fatal: being mangled when the Landing gear retracts, tinnitus, deafness, hypothermia, Hypoxic hypoxia, frostbite, acidosis and finally falling when the doors of the compartment reopen. The landing gear compartment is not equipped with heating, pressure or oxygen, which are vital for survival at a high altitude. According to experts, at , hypoxia causes lightheadedness, weakness, vision impairment and . By the oxygen level of the blood drops and the person will struggle to stay conscious. Above their lungs would need artificial pressure to operate normally. The temperature could drop as low as which causes severe hypothermia. Those stowaways who managed to not be crushed by the retracting undercarriage or killed by the deadly conditions would most likely be unconscious when the compartment door re-opens during the approach and fall several thousand feet to their deaths.
David Learmount, an aviation expert of Flight International, told BBC News about a lot of ignorance in this area. He suggested that no one would be willing to risk such a journey having full understanding of this kind of ordeal. Stowaways who survived usually travelled relatively short distances or at a low altitude. Two cases are known of people who survived at an altitude of about – a man on an 8-hour flight, whose body core temperature fell to , and a 16-year-old boy who was unharmed by a 5.5 hour flight, despite losing consciousness. Almost all aircraft stowaways are male.
Aside from risk to themselves, aircraft stowaways can also cause significant risk and stress to others when impacted equipment compromises safety, as well as significant cost of equipment repair, damage to aircraft on landing, and runway closures. In 1994, Flight PH844 discovered the body of a deceased male stowaway was jamming the starboard carriageway. After 3.5 hours of maneuvers attempting to dislodge the body, the flight made an emergency landing using only the nosewheel and port undercarriage. The air force of another country was required to assist move the damaged plane from the runway.
In 1965, Brian Robson attempted to mail himself in a crate on a flight from Melbourne, Australia to London. The flight was diverted to Los Angeles, where he was discovered after four days in the crate. In one reported case, in 2003, a young man mailed himself in a large box and had it shipped on UPS planes from New York City to Texas. He survived because the box travelled in a pressurized hold of an aircraft.
From 1947 until September 2012, there were 96 known stowaway attempts worldwide in wheel wells of 85 separate flights, which resulted in 73 deaths with only 23 survivors.
Since the September 11 attacks, it has become more difficult to be a stowaway on board transportation arriving to or departing from the United States. Airport security has dramatically increased, and among the new security measures is trained professionals watching over the fences from which stowaways usually gain entrance to an airport's runway.
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