It was just an escape plan for a teenager who didn’t want to go to Catholic school in the summer. Things might have been very different if things had gone as planned, but this was his last plan.
A teenager named Keith Sapsford came up with a plan that was bigger than his size when he was just 14 years old. He had planned to go to Tokyo by hiding in the wheel section of the plane that was going to depart from Sydney Airport.
The source of this plan of the 14-year-old teenager was actually his father.
According to his father, Charles Sapsford, he had previously warned his son Keith about a Spanish boy who died hiding in the plane’s landing gear. But the idea apparently appealed to his son. His son also lived the fate of the child he mentioned.
The young man thought that he had taken everything into account when making this plan. He had guessed that as long as the plane remained in the wheel well, it could be protected from the dangers of high altitude. But what he didn’t take into account was that when the plane’s wheels were retracted, it would reopen. What happened was inevitable.
The image of Keith caught on camera while falling was engraved in the minds.
Sapsford’s goal was to travel for free by sneaking under the plane. However, when the plane took off, it is said that it did not survive due to the cold and low oxygen levels in the landing gear area. Keith Sapsford fell to the ground from a height of 61 meters shortly after the plane took off. So how did we learn this?
You may be wondering how the image of such an accident came to be. Strangely enough, it was pure coincidence that amateur photographer John Gilpin was in the same place at the same time. Gilpin captured the last memorable fall image.
If Sapsford had not fallen from the plane, it still seems unlikely that he would have survived.
The lack of oxygen felt as it is must have created some reactions in the body. Gilpin, who recorded those shots, suddenly realized the frame he had captured at the “uneventful” airport shoot a week later. In the photo frame, he saw a boy whose feet were dangling from an airplane. Unfortunately, it was too late for that.
This dark event and the remaining photo frame left behind a bitter tragedy. After the incident, the US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) published a study in 2015 showing stowaways surviving the flight. Unlike Sapsford, survivors in such a situation often resorted to this method at low altitudes and on short journeys.
This event once again emphasized the importance of raising people’s awareness and led to the adoption of various security measures to prevent similar incidents.
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