Against all odds, a 13-year-old Afghan boy defied gravity, fate, and nearly certain death—surviving a perilous journey from Kabul to Delhi crammed inside the landing gear compartment of a passenger aircraft. The teen, hailing from Kunduz in northern Afghanistan, made the nearly four-hour flight aboard Kam Air flight RQ-4401, hidden in one of the most dangerous parts of the aircraft—the rear central wheel well.

The flight landed safely in Delhi around 11:10 am on Sunday, but the real shock awaited officials on the tarmac. Security personnel at Indira Gandhi International Airport were stunned to find the boy wandering aimlessly on the runway shortly after landing. “He was found roaming near the aircraft and taken into custody,” a spokesperson from the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) confirmed. After several hours of questioning, the boy was returned to Kabul on the same airline.

The young stowaway reportedly told Indian authorities that he made the life-threatening journey simply out of “curiosity.” His only possession? A small red audio speaker, recovered during a post-flight safety check. According to The Indian Express, the boy had hoped to travel to Iran and was unaware that the aircraft he boarded was headed to India.

He had reportedly sneaked into Kabul airport, followed a group of passengers unnoticed, and climbed into the aircraft’s landing gear compartment.

Experts note that such survival stories are extremely rare. At cruising altitudes of 36,000 feet, temperatures plummet, and oxygen levels are dangerously low. Many stowaways lose consciousness or fall to their deaths during landing gear deployment. In this extraordinary case, luck—and perhaps a miracle—was on the boy’s side.