The Tragic Story Of The Boy Who Fell To His Death From A Plane

2023-01-26 22:07:32 Written by Alex

 

Keith Sapsford, a 14-year-old from Randwick, New South Wales, tragically lost his life in 1970 while attempting to stow away in the wheel well of a Japan Airlines plane, en route from Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport to Tokyo. This occurred shortly after he escaped from a Roman Catholic Institution where his father Charles Sapsford sent him for reorientation, as a recent family trip around the world had failed to quell Keith's curiosity about different cultures and ways of life.

 

A wheel-well stowaway is a person who attempts to travel by hiding in the landing gear compartment, also known as the wheel bay or undercarriage of an aircraft. These attempts are extremely dangerous and have never been successful. The risks include hypothermia and hypoxia due to the extremely low temperatures and lack of oxygen at high altitude. Additionally, there is a risk of hearing damage from prolonged exposure to loud noise outside the cabin and death. The takeoff and landing phases are particularly dangerous as the survival rate is very low.

 

Keith Sapsford's attempt to stowaway in the wheel-well of a plane met with a tragic end as he was flung off the plane during takeoff. The landing gear retracts into the wheel well during takeoff, which has the tendency to crush a stowaway if they are not flung out of the airplane. Unfortunately, this was the case for Keith as he was flung off the plane immediately after it took off, crashing down 60 meters (90 feet).

 The cause of this was the opening of the latch mid-air to retract the wheel back into the compartment. Although the incident was captured by an amateur photographer John Gilpin who was taking pictures of planes during takeoff, he didn't realize the tragic incident until the negatives were developed the following week. Even if Keith had survived the initial impact, doctors and technicians said he would have died from a lack of oxygen and freezing temperatures at higher altitudes.

 

Keith did not anticipate the tragic outcome of his actions, all he wanted was to sneak onto a plane unnoticed and explore the world. In the wake of this loss, his father Charles Sapsford remembered warning Keith about the death of a Spanish boy who also had the desire to travel and attempted to stowaway on a plane, but was flung off during takeoff. It's possible that Keith did not take his father's warning seriously, believing it was just a story made up to discourage him from pursuing his dream.

 

Keith's father Charles, recognizing his son's desire to explore the world, tried to fulfill it by arranging a family trip, but when that failed to satiate Keith's curiosity, he enrolled him in a Catholic orientation program. Unfortunately, the 14-year-old boy was determined to see the world and ultimately made the tragic decision to attempt to stowaway on a plane. This event was particularly heartbreaking as Keith, like many others, was just a young boy with a dream. It serves as a tragic reminder of how dangerous it can be to act on one's curiosity without considering the potential consequences.