The 39-year-old Indonesian man who was caught hiding in the landing gear section of a cargo plane at the Penang International Airport was hoping to hitch a ride to Medan yesterday — Picture by Sayuti Zainudin

GEORGE TOWN, May 14 — He was bent on a free ride home to Medan, but the irony was that he would have ended up in South Korea, and that too if he had survived the dangerous stunt in the first place.

The 39-year-old Indonesian man who was caught hiding in the landing gear section of a cargo plane at the Penang International Airport in the hope of hitching a ride yesterday was in fact about to ‘fly blind’ as he did not even know where the plane was headed.

A source, however, told Bernama that the jet, owned by a courier company, was headed to South Korea, adding that just prior to being caught, the man had been hiding in several other planes as well.

“When he was apprehended, he had only RM6 on him,” said the source.

Meanwhile, Southwest district deputy police chief Jefri Md Zain, when contacted by Bernama, said early information showed that the man, who is under remand, has a passport but not a work permit.

The police are also tracing the owner of the poultry processing shop in Balik Pulau where the Indonesian was employed, after he claimed that he had not been paid his salary for the past two months. — Bernama