It really helps to picture being stuck upside down in the thing. I thought, “surely you could gradually rotate yourself the right way up” before I saw the photo.
When I was a kid we were playing around and I got zipped into a suitcase. I had to really "get small".
I was completely fine for a while, until a little while in it was like a switch was flipped and I was "let me out omg let me out". I freaked out. then I was out and was fine. But I remember that extreme claustrophobia moment.
> At one point, Robson says he was left upside down on a tarmac, literally sitting on his head for 24 hours because there wasn't enough room in the crate to turn around.
> They covered the crate with labels that read "Fragile," "Handle with care" and "This side up." It was scheduled to fly from Melbourne to London within 36 hours. Robson ended up being inside that crate for five days. "It was terrifying," he said. "I was passing in and out of consciousness. I had a lack of oxygen. Oh, it was bad." There seemed to be an endless number of stopovers, and the airport crews didn't pay much attention to the crate's labels. At one point, Robson says he was left upside down on a tarmac, literally sitting on his head for 24 hours because there wasn't enough room in the crate to turn around.
The rest of the article is great (in particular the way it ends), but reading the above excerpt made me shudder.
Isn't it kinda crazy how we take for granted how easily it is to find people nowadays via social media or your stored phone book entry on your cell phone? I guess they didn't think to exchange phone numbers or addresses before the scheme was hatched? And then, how would you lookup a phone number in Australia from LA or London in 1963? You'd have to really work at it to find it.
I wish I could do something like this for my mother. She came to a strange country as a 14 year old girl in the 60s. Just happened upon some young men that spoke her language.
She had missed her connecting train so they took her home, 3-4 young men. They fed her, gave her a couch to sleep on without taking advantage of her. She wanted to give them a bottle of alcohol she had brought as thanks but they refused.
The next day they put her on the right train.
Only 2 years later she was married to my father, yes at 16. Times were different.
Ever since she had hoped to find these guys who helped her to thank them. She has facebook connections in both countries but it's not helping. I think she needs it to show up on the news somewhere, in both countries most likely.
Reminds me of Stowaway [0], the incredible story of a teenage boy who escaped from his native Cuba by flying the Atlantic Ocean stowed away in the wheel well of a DC-8 airliner. Not as far as in the OP (he made it to Madrid), but he did not have access to a pressurized hold so he lacked oxygen, nearly froze, and barely escaped being crushed to death. But he did survive.
I'm shocked he even survived. Aren't airplane holds unpressurized? Perhaps airplanes simply flew at lower altitudes in those days. Still, it would have gotten pretty darned cold.
No, cargo holds are generally pressurized and have been, as far as I know, since the beginning of pressurized aviation (late 40s to early 50s - there were a few test airframes earlier).
It doesn't mean cargo compartments are not cold, dark, loud, and unpleasant places to be, but they're pressurized.
If you pressurize a cylinder (say, a more or less round airplane fuselage), the stresses become tension stresses around the perimeter - it's trying to inflate the balloon, but the perimeter is designed to handle these stresses. The floor only has to support the weight of passengers.
If you had an unpressurized cargo hold, the floor would now need to not only support the weight of passengers, it would have to support the entire pressurization weight - which is far harder, because floors are typically flat. It would have to be far stronger and heavier.
There have been several aviation incidents from the cargo doors opening in flight - the DC-10 was particularly prone to the problem, because instead of an inward-opening, "plug" type door (where the pressure holds it in place), it had an outward opening door - more cargo space because the door doesn't swing in, but if the latching mechanism fails (which it did), the pressurization tries to push the door open, and it occasionally succeeded.
No, this is a long-standing myth which is entirely false. It wouldn't make sense from an engineering standpoint as it would move the pressure differential to the flat (and thus weak) floor of the airplane, rather than the round (and thus strong) outer hull.
However, the hold is not climate controlled to the same degree as the cabin, so he may have gotten cold-ish. But even then, the cargo hold is not a particularly inhospitable place. Living things (animals) are for better or for worse shipped that way all the time.
My mom's bff's husband was originally South African but his family moved to East Germany in the 60's. His mother, his sister, and him escaped in the back of an industrial box truck. Specifically, he was stowed in a toolbox and was frightened of being caught or killed the entire way. To this day, he has extreme claustrophobia as a result.
> "Australia was a complete shock to my system," says Brian Robson. "I found it very difficult, and thought from the moment I got there I wanted to get out as quickly as possible."
a desperate situation calls for desperate measures
That's funny, that's what I thought about Melbourne last time I went. Only because the city seems to be entirely made out of fancy interior design indie coffee shops though.
Lou Reed went to Syracuse University starting in 1960. While Lou Reed was likely writing the great American novel, he didn’t tell many people the truth so who knows for sure?? My gut feeling is that you’re likely right.
> "The Americans, the FBI, the CIA and everything else, they were brilliant. I mean, I fell in love with America, because I've never been treated so well," he said. "Everybody there really looked after me. And they just thought, oh, it's this silly kid getting himself into trouble."
Bad idea all around. Could have easily been frozen or asphyxiated even if the trip was on a quick single flight. Nobody looks at a crate if there's a decompression event. Not even an emergency escape in the crate. Oof.
That story is nuts - and he obviously would have been treated much differently when they found him in the U.S. if the climate at the time would've been like it is now (thankfully it wasn't).
This reminds me of the time I was riding my motorcycle in the cold at night on the highway from Vermont to Massachusetts for 3 hours. I wore a bunch of layers but with highway speeds the wind chill cut away heat incredibly quickly. Creeping cold gave way to mad shivering which gave way to a general numbness and fatigue. But I refused to give in and stop and eventually made it home. I spent a nontrivial portion of that ride saying “Fuck” over and over to myself.
This sounds like that experience times 10. The will of the human spirit is truly extraordinary.
That was my thought, too. I'm usually ready to kiss the Earth after a 16+ hour flight. I can't imagine 5 days, and not even in the luxury of a coach class airline seat.
[+] [-] modernerd|5 years ago|reply
https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/media/images/82156000/jpg/...
From this 2015 article: https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32151053
It really helps to picture being stuck upside down in the thing. I thought, “surely you could gradually rotate yourself the right way up” before I saw the photo.
[+] [-] kevinyun|5 years ago|reply
Here's to hoping he finds his two friends after all these years!
[+] [-] dageshi|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] m463|5 years ago|reply
I was completely fine for a while, until a little while in it was like a switch was flipped and I was "let me out omg let me out". I freaked out. then I was out and was fine. But I remember that extreme claustrophobia moment.
[+] [-] danso|5 years ago|reply
I'm surprised he survived this. I remember when David Blaine hung upside down in Central Park for 3 days – but every few hours he had to take a break: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1060038/Cheati...
[+] [-] herodoturtle|5 years ago|reply
> They covered the crate with labels that read "Fragile," "Handle with care" and "This side up." It was scheduled to fly from Melbourne to London within 36 hours. Robson ended up being inside that crate for five days. "It was terrifying," he said. "I was passing in and out of consciousness. I had a lack of oxygen. Oh, it was bad." There seemed to be an endless number of stopovers, and the airport crews didn't pay much attention to the crate's labels. At one point, Robson says he was left upside down on a tarmac, literally sitting on his head for 24 hours because there wasn't enough room in the crate to turn around.
The rest of the article is great (in particular the way it ends), but reading the above excerpt made me shudder.
The will power of this man is unbelievable.
I hope he finds his friends.
[+] [-] chrisco255|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] yosito|5 years ago|reply
He couldn't stand being away from home for more than 3 months. I'm not sure if it was really will power. More like sunk cost fallacy.
[+] [-] hk1337|5 years ago|reply
and he still ended up upside down for 24 hours.
[+] [-] INTPenis|5 years ago|reply
She had missed her connecting train so they took her home, 3-4 young men. They fed her, gave her a couch to sleep on without taking advantage of her. She wanted to give them a bottle of alcohol she had brought as thanks but they refused.
The next day they put her on the right train.
Only 2 years later she was married to my father, yes at 16. Times were different.
Ever since she had hoped to find these guys who helped her to thank them. She has facebook connections in both countries but it's not helping. I think she needs it to show up on the news somewhere, in both countries most likely.
[+] [-] FredPret|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] beforeolives|5 years ago|reply
> He is best known for successfully posting himself in a box from England to Australia to avoid paying for a plane ticket
I first heard of him on this episode of The Dollop podcast - https://allthingscomedy.com/podcast/the-dollop/113---reg-spi...
[+] [-] hcrisp|5 years ago|reply
[0] https://www.rd.com/article/escape-from-cuba-dc-8/
[+] [-] unknown|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] mabbo|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Syonyk|5 years ago|reply
It doesn't mean cargo compartments are not cold, dark, loud, and unpleasant places to be, but they're pressurized.
If you pressurize a cylinder (say, a more or less round airplane fuselage), the stresses become tension stresses around the perimeter - it's trying to inflate the balloon, but the perimeter is designed to handle these stresses. The floor only has to support the weight of passengers.
If you had an unpressurized cargo hold, the floor would now need to not only support the weight of passengers, it would have to support the entire pressurization weight - which is far harder, because floors are typically flat. It would have to be far stronger and heavier.
There have been several aviation incidents from the cargo doors opening in flight - the DC-10 was particularly prone to the problem, because instead of an inward-opening, "plug" type door (where the pressure holds it in place), it had an outward opening door - more cargo space because the door doesn't swing in, but if the latching mechanism fails (which it did), the pressurization tries to push the door open, and it occasionally succeeded.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_DC-10#Cargo_...
[+] [-] bri3d|5 years ago|reply
However, the hold is not climate controlled to the same degree as the cabin, so he may have gotten cold-ish. But even then, the cargo hold is not a particularly inhospitable place. Living things (animals) are for better or for worse shipped that way all the time.
[+] [-] hcrisp|5 years ago|reply
I just found a long list [0] of people who have done this, sadly only 24% of people who attempt such a thing survive.
[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wheel-well_stowaway_...
[+] [-] marcinzm|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] failwhaleshark|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] AuthorizedCust|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mlindner|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] herodoturtle|5 years ago|reply
Were they criminals on the run? Or was it an illegal citizenship / passport issue?
Sounds like an incredible story either way.
[+] [-] shoo|5 years ago|reply
a desperate situation calls for desperate measures
[+] [-] astrange|5 years ago|reply
It also somehow has all four seasons every day.
[+] [-] quickthrowman|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hluska|5 years ago|reply
(https://www.creemmag.com/blogs/journal/dead-lie-the-velvets-...)
Lou Reed went to Syracuse University starting in 1960. While Lou Reed was likely writing the great American novel, he didn’t tell many people the truth so who knows for sure?? My gut feeling is that you’re likely right.
[+] [-] trothamel|5 years ago|reply
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/brief-history-chil...
[+] [-] ars|5 years ago|reply
Also usually the postman was a friend or relative, not a stranger.
So not as exciting as it sounds.
[+] [-] unknown|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] peter303|5 years ago|reply
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/brief-history-chil...
[+] [-] KorematsuFred|5 years ago|reply
Hell ya. Imagine that happening in 2020.
[+] [-] munificent|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] a0-prw|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 3r3rni9|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tyingq|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Syonyk|5 years ago|reply
"Thinking things all the way through" isn't a common trait in any 19 year old men I've known over the years, to include myself a few decades ago.
"Oh, man, that sounds like it should work!" is a lot more likely. And, you know, it usually does!
[+] [-] ben509|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sebastien_b|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Gustomaximus|5 years ago|reply
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reg_Spiers
[+] [-] khalilravanna|5 years ago|reply
This sounds like that experience times 10. The will of the human spirit is truly extraordinary.
[+] [-] asimjalis|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] flatline|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] metanonsense|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nullserver|5 years ago|reply
First 3 hours of the flight was me bent over holding her legs still.
Turns out 5% of the population have a reverse reaction to Benadryl. They become absurdly hyper on it.
[+] [-] rootusrootus|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dylan604|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Aeolun|5 years ago|reply