'It's miraculous': Stowaway, 16, survives flying more than 5 hours in freezing temperatures in WHEEL WELL of plane after falling into 'hibernation-like state'



Teenage boy flew from San Jose, California to Maui, Hawaii on Sunday



The unidentified teen was discovered 'dazed and confused' on the runway



Crept onto Hawaiian Airlines Flight 45 and braved temperatures of -81F (-62C) during the five-and-a-half hour flight

Lost consciousness during the flight but survived unharmed



He won't face charges and has been handed to child protective services



He is believed to be only the second person to survive at such an altitude



A 16-year-old stowaway has miraculously survived flying halfway across the Pacific in the wheel well of a flight from California to Hawaii - despite temperatures of -81F (-62C) at 38,000 feet.

The teen was discovered on the tarmac at the Maui airport on Sunday carrying no ID or belongings - apart from a comb - and told the FBI he had run away from home after an argument with his parents.



'Kid's lucky to be alive,' FBI spokesman Tom Simon in Honolulu said on Sunday night.

Among those skeptical about his journey, medical experts said his body would have had to fall into a hibernation-like state - with his heart beating only a couple of times a minute - for him to survive.



Scroll down for video Amazing: This is the first picture of the 16-year-old boy who traveled from San Jose, California to Maui, Hawaii on Sunday

Miracle at Kahului Airport: The 16-year-old boy managed to survive for almost 6 hours in freezing temperatures at 38,000 feet during his stolen flight

But Simon said security footage from the San Jose airport verified that the boy, who is from Santa Clara, California, hopped a fence to get to Hawaiian Airlines Flight 45 on Sunday morning.



Simon said when the flight landed in Maui, the boy remained unconscious for about an hour, but eventually hopped down from the wheel well and started wandering around the airport grounds.

'He was unconscious for the lion's share of the flight,' Simon said. The flight lasted about 5 1/2 hours.

Hawaiian Airlines spokesman Alison Croyle said airline personnel noticed the boy on the ramp after the flight arrived and immediately notified airport security.

A picture of the teen being taken away for medical care, looking awake and alert, was provided to the MailOnline by The Maui News.









Plane: This is a 767-300 aircraft - the same model that the teen boy managed to stow himself away in

Staggering: The 16-year-old somehow survived unharmed while stowed in the wheel well The boy was not charged with any crime and has been handed over to child protective services.

'Our primary concern now is for the well-being of the boy, who is exceptionally lucky to have survived,' Croyle said. Simon said the boy was medically screened and found to be unharmed. HOW DID HE LIVE? THE SLIM ODDS AGAINST SURVIVING THE JOURNEY

The sheer physical stresses on the body any stowaway climbing inside the landing gear faces are incredible. Most are simply fatal. According to the Federal Aviation Administration's Civil Aerospace Medical Institute, the chances of survival of a wheel-well stowaway on a commercial aircraft are around 24 per cent. Avoiding being crushed when the undercarriage retracts is the first challenge faced and then in quick succession, hypothermia, hypoxia and ultimately falling when the doors reopen.

Obviously the landing gear well has no heat or oxygen supply and is not pressurized.

At 18,000 feet, the oxygen supply becomes so depleted that the stowaway is likely to lose consciousness.

Anywhere above 33,000 feet, the stowaway's lungs would be in need of artificial pressure to be able to expand and contract normally.

Mount Everest is 29,029ft and only 5 per cent of the 3,000+ who have made that ascent have done so without oxygen

At 38,000 feet, the temperature would be no more than -81f, which usually would prove fatal within minutes.

And as the plane comes into land, assuming the stowaway is even conscious, they would have to avoid being crushed again or falling thousands of feet to their death. 'Doesn't even remember the flight,' Simon said. 'It's amazing he survived that.' But news of the survival was met with suspicion, as most wheel-well stowaways don't survive the freezing temperatures and lack of oxygen. Among the skeptics was ABC News aviation consultant John Nance, who said: 'This is a first in medical science and a first in physiology. I just don't believe it.' Dr. Richard Besser, ABC News' chief health and medical editor, said to survive such conditions, the body has to fall into a hibernation-like state, with the heart only beating a couple of times a minute. 'It's near impossible, almost miraculous, and maybe there's more to the story,' Besser said.

Another aviation expert, Peter Forman, said that he was staggered the boy survived. 'The odds of a person surviving that long of a flight at that altitude are very remote, actually. I mean, you are talking about altitudes that are well above the altitude of Mt. Everest. And temperatures that can reach 40 degrees below zero,' Forman said.

'A lot of people would only have useful consciousness for a minute or two at that altitude.

'For somebody to survive multiple hours with that lack of oxygen and that cold is just miraculous. I've never heard of anything like that before.' His misadventure also raised security questions. A Congressman who serves on the Homeland Security committee wondered how the teen could have got onto the airfield at San Jose unnoticed. 'I have long been concerned about security at our airport perimeters. #Stowaway teen demonstrates vulnerabilities that need to be addressed,' tweeted Rep. Eric Swalwell, a Democrat who represents the San Francisco Bay Area's eastern cities and suburbs.

A call and email message to a Mineta San Jose International Airport spokeswoman were not immediately returned.

Officials at Kahului Airport referred questions to the State Department of Transportation, which did not return a phone call seeking comment.



Take-off: The 16-year-old boy sneaked onto the plane at San Jose airport in California (pictured)

Hawaiian Airlines Flight 24 to Oakland, California, was delayed nearly three hours Sunday due to the incident. The flight was scheduled to leave Kahului at noon and finally departed at 2:51 p.m.

A male passenger who declined to be identified said that he was seated on the plane to Oakland with his family before he was notified of the delay. He said that flight attendants were told to disarm the doors and that the flight would be delayed 10 to 15 minutes.

A Transportation Security Agency spokesman who declined to be named referred questions to the FBI and airport authorities.

In August, a 13- or 14-year-old boy in Nigeria survived a 35-minute trip in the wheel well of a domestic flight after stowing away.



Authorities credited the flight's short duration and altitude of about 25,000.



Others stowing away in wheel wells have died, including a 16-year-old killed after stowing away aboard a flight from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Boston in 2010 and a 26-year-old man who fell onto a suburban London street from a flight from Angola in 2012.