Vienna – London stowaway ‘unable to afford ticket’

A British newspaper has identified the young man who survived a flight from Vienna to London by crouching in a wheel bay earlier this month.The Mail on Sunday (MoS) reported yesterday (Sun) that the 20-year-old stowaway who fell off the jumbo jet after it touched down at London-Heathrow was Andrei Culea from Cochirleni in eastern Romania.Culea was entitled to stay in the United Kingdom by immigration officials after he was released from a clinic.Aviation experts explained he only survived the 1,300-kilometre trip at sub-zero temperatures since the United Arab Emirates state fleet Boeing 747 flew at a lower altitude than planned due to thunderstorms en route.Now the MoS reports that Culea saw himself left with no other option than attempt to reach Britain this way as he was unable to raise the price of a one-way ticket to London.Romanian citizens are free to settle and work without almost any kind of regulations within the European Union (EU) as the country joined the union in 2007.Culea’s mother Vasilica told the MoS that he did not inform her about his desperate plan, but claimed he was trying to find work in the regional capital of Constanta.”I am speechless. He told us he was leaving one month ago for a construction job in the city,” the 62-year-old woman told the newspaper.”I didn’t know anything about this. He never said anything about wanting to go to Britain but he is very interested in hard work and Britain is known as a place to find jobs,” she added, revealing that her late husband beat her up for years.The MoS claimed Culea planned to apply at construction firms erecting London’s Olympic Park where most events of the 2012 Olympic Games will take place.The report further has it that his family – mother, two brothers, two sisters-in-law and four small children – was forced to make ends meet with just 85 Euros per month.The MoS reports that Culea – who survived his adventurous trip with just a few bruises – disappeared from his temporary accommodation in the British capital when police officers came to check his physical state.Vienna International Airport (VIA) officials meanwhile dismissed appeals to tighten security measures at the venue. A spokesman explained staff would regularly patrol the airport’s fenced boundary, adding that it was “impossible” to keep individuals from invading the site illegally.