A teenage boy survived a five-and-a-half hour flight over the Pacific after stowing himself in the freezing wheel compartment of  a jetliner. The 16-year-old endured a lack of oxygen and temperatures as low as -62C (-80F) as the aircraft reached 38,000ft. The conditions would normally prove fatal but experts think his heart may have slowed to a few beats per minute as his body went into a ‘hibernation-like’ state.

The stowaway is understood to have been unconscious for most of the journey of more than 2,000 miles between California and Hawaii, and woke up around an hour after the plane landed. He then jumped out of the undercarriage compartment and was found on the tarmac on the island of Maui. He was carrying nothing but a comb. Miraculously, medics declared him unharmed. The boy, from Santa Clara, California, has not been named but it is understood he had run away from his parents following an argument.