Subhechcha Ganguly 
The daring escape of a 13-year-old Afghan boy, who hid in the wheel well of a plane from Kabul to Delhi, has revived memories of a far more tragic journey three decades ago by two brothers from Punjab.
The Afghan teenager, from Kunduz, was spotted soon after landing in Delhi and deported within hours. He told airport security officials that his act was born of “curiosity” and carried nothing more than a small speaker with him on the two-hour flight.
But the incident echoes the story of Pardeep and Vijay Saini, brothers from Punjab who attempted a similar escape in October 1996 in search of a better life in the UK. Misled by an agent into believing that the wheel well led to the luggage compartment, the brothers paid £150 and sneaked onto the runway at Delhi airport. They climbed into the undercarriage of a Boeing 747, bound for London.
The journey quickly turned into a nightmare. At 10,000 metres, temperatures plunged to minus 60°C and winds lashed at hurricane force. Dressed only in cotton shirts and thin jackets, the brothers endured freezing conditions as the wheels retracted. Pardeep later recalled the searing heat of the landing gear followed by unbearable cold.
When the aircraft neared Heathrow, Vijay’s frozen body fell 2,000 feet to the ground and was discovered days later in Surrey. Against all odds, Pardeep survived — doctors said he may have slipped into a state of suspended animation. His survival was deemed a medical anomaly, and after years of legal battles and appeals, he eventually secured residency in the UK, working at Heathrow Airport.
Though described as “the luckiest man alive,” Pardeep lived with haunting nightmares of his brother’s death. “Some days he feels lucky,” his uncle once said, “but then he realises the agony that luck has brought. Then he feels he might as well have died too.”
The Afghan boy’s brief adventure may have ended without tragedy, but it rekindled the memory of the Saini brothers’ desperate gamble — one that symbolized both the risks and the costs of chasing dreams through perilous paths.
