A STOWAWAY who hid in the front wheel section of a jumbo jet survived a brutal 11-hour journey from South Africa to the Netherlands.

Dutch military police said the man was found yesterday in the wheel section below the fuselage.

Miraculously the stowaway on the Cargolux 747 freight plane was found alive and well despite the arduous journey after arriving at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport.

Dutch military police said: "The man is doing well considering the circumstances and has been taken to a hospital.”

Marechausse spokeswoman Joanna Helmonds said the man's age and nationality had not yet been determined.

She said: "Our first concern of course was for his health.

"This is definitely very unusual that someone was able to survive the cold at such a height — very, very unusual."

A spokesperson for freight carrier Cargolux confirmed in an email that the stowaway had been on a flight operated by Cargolux Italia.

They said:  "We are not in a position to make any further comment until the authorities and the airline have completed their investigation.”

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The only Cargolux freight flight arriving at Schiphol on Sunday was a Boeing 747 freighter that travelled from Johannesburg and made a stop in Nairobi, Kenya, according to Schiphol's website and flight tracking data.

A spokesperson for the airport declined to answer questions about the incident.

Last year a stoway survived a 5,600-mile flight by clinging to a jumbo jet wheel at -60C — while his mate plunged to his death.

Themba Cabeka, 30, held on to the jet's undercarriage for the entire 11-hour flight from South Africa to London Heathrow in 2015.

A stowaway was allegedly found in the landing gear of a plane after hiding on a flight from Guatemala to Miami was captured on video on Saturday.

In 2019 a body of a stowaway migrant plunged 3,500ft to his death into a back garden in Clapham, London, while a tenant was sunbathing.

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