1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 2 00:00:03,800 --> 00:00:07,720 In 2015, a stowaway fell to his death in London. 3 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 4 00:00:09,240 --> 00:00:12,480 He'd been hiding with a friend in the wheel well of a plane. 5 00:00:15,800 --> 00:00:18,360 His death made worldwide headlines, 6 00:00:18,400 --> 00:00:20,360 but his life was a complete mystery. 7 00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:24,840 I set out to discover who he was, 8 00:00:24,880 --> 00:00:28,080 why he had taken on such a perilous journey 9 00:00:28,120 --> 00:00:29,880 and what happened on that plane. 10 00:00:32,320 --> 00:00:36,320 For five years, I searched obsessively for the one man 11 00:00:36,360 --> 00:00:38,760 who could answer all my questions. 12 00:00:40,320 --> 00:00:43,200 The one man who, against all the odds, 13 00:00:43,240 --> 00:00:46,840 had survived the most extreme journey ever made. 14 00:00:58,760 --> 00:01:00,480 I'm Rich Bentley. 15 00:01:00,520 --> 00:01:04,880 I've spent 15 years making documentaries all around the world. 16 00:01:04,920 --> 00:01:09,200 Five years ago, I chanced upon a little-known story of people 17 00:01:09,240 --> 00:01:13,160 trying to come to the UK by the most dangerous means - 18 00:01:13,200 --> 00:01:15,680 clinging to the landing gear of planes. 19 00:01:15,720 --> 00:01:18,920 ARCHIVE NEWS: As the plane flew over this street on approach to landing, 20 00:01:18,960 --> 00:01:23,080 that's the point at which the wheels were lowered and he fell. 21 00:01:23,120 --> 00:01:24,960 As I started to look into it, 22 00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:27,840 I became aware of a chilling phenomenon. 23 00:01:27,880 --> 00:01:31,480 The body was found in a British Airways Boeing 747 24 00:01:31,520 --> 00:01:34,640 which arrived at Gatwick Airport this morning from Nairobi. 25 00:01:34,680 --> 00:01:37,040 He fell to his death as the wheels were lowered 26 00:01:37,080 --> 00:01:38,880 above this west London gasworks. 27 00:01:38,920 --> 00:01:42,640 I couldn't begin to understand what it must be like to cling 28 00:01:42,680 --> 00:01:44,480 to the undercarriage of a plane 29 00:01:44,520 --> 00:01:48,280 or what would force anyone to attempt something so dangerous. 30 00:01:48,320 --> 00:01:49,960 At 18,000 feet, 31 00:01:50,000 --> 00:01:54,480 aviation experts say hypoxia, or oxygen deprivation, sets in. 32 00:01:54,520 --> 00:01:57,320 At 22,000 feet, with no pressurisation, 33 00:01:57,360 --> 00:01:59,080 the lungs have trouble functioning. 34 00:01:59,120 --> 00:02:01,720 It's tough to maintain consciousness. 35 00:02:01,760 --> 00:02:04,200 At 35,000 feet, hypothermia would set in, 36 00:02:04,240 --> 00:02:09,240 as the temperature can drop as low as -81 degrees Fahrenheit. 37 00:02:09,280 --> 00:02:12,600 I learned there have been 109 recorded attempts made 38 00:02:12,640 --> 00:02:13,840 across the world. 39 00:02:14,960 --> 00:02:19,120 And that London is the most common destination, with 16 wheel-well 40 00:02:19,160 --> 00:02:21,360 stowaways in the last 25 years. 41 00:02:28,520 --> 00:02:31,880 There was little information available beyond these grim news 42 00:02:31,920 --> 00:02:36,120 reports, so I met with witnesses to some of these events to see 43 00:02:36,160 --> 00:02:38,280 what else I could find out. 44 00:02:38,320 --> 00:02:40,280 We looked out of the window 45 00:02:40,320 --> 00:02:44,080 and we saw this young black guy laying there. 46 00:02:44,120 --> 00:02:48,040 His head was on the kerb and there was brain matter spread 47 00:02:48,080 --> 00:02:51,080 across the pavement and on some of the cars. 48 00:02:51,120 --> 00:02:52,520 You can imagine the fear, 49 00:02:52,560 --> 00:02:56,560 all of a sudden, realising that the air up there's thin, 50 00:02:56,600 --> 00:03:01,680 freezing, rather like being on top of Mount Everest. 51 00:03:01,720 --> 00:03:05,240 It happened just along here, by this wall here. 52 00:03:05,280 --> 00:03:06,920 And it was in the morning, right? 53 00:03:06,960 --> 00:03:10,280 It was, except it was Sunday, so it's probably a little quieter. OK. 54 00:03:10,320 --> 00:03:13,400 No children going to school, thank goodness. 55 00:03:13,440 --> 00:03:16,480 Well, it isn't the first time we've had people falling 56 00:03:16,520 --> 00:03:18,240 out of airplanes in this area, 57 00:03:18,280 --> 00:03:20,000 because as you can probably see, 58 00:03:20,040 --> 00:03:23,920 the airplanes open their undercarriage around about now. 59 00:03:27,080 --> 00:03:29,600 As soon as I got here and saw the state of the body, 60 00:03:29,640 --> 00:03:32,800 he was mangled, there was a lot of blood splattering. 61 00:03:32,840 --> 00:03:35,440 Some of his brains was on the car over there. 62 00:03:35,480 --> 00:03:38,280 You know, I know, from the number of bodies I've seen, 63 00:03:38,320 --> 00:03:39,720 he had dropped out of the sky. 64 00:03:39,760 --> 00:03:42,880 The most affluent part of London, he lost his life in a car park. 65 00:03:49,080 --> 00:03:50,760 All of these deaths had happened 66 00:03:50,800 --> 00:03:52,880 just a couple of miles away from my home. 67 00:03:57,800 --> 00:04:01,560 And I was surprised I'd never heard about them before, especially 68 00:04:01,600 --> 00:04:04,480 as immigration dominated the news. 69 00:04:04,520 --> 00:04:07,320 Coastguards around the UK are stepping up their searches 70 00:04:07,360 --> 00:04:10,280 in light of reports of migrants trying to sneak into Britain. 71 00:04:10,320 --> 00:04:14,560 3,000 migrants, who have been camped out in Calais, hop on board 72 00:04:14,600 --> 00:04:17,720 those lorries as they attempt to get to Britain. 73 00:04:17,760 --> 00:04:21,040 The electorate are generally not that keen on immigration. 74 00:04:21,080 --> 00:04:22,160 We don't have the housing 75 00:04:22,200 --> 00:04:24,240 or the National Health Service to deal with it. 76 00:04:24,280 --> 00:04:25,720 More than one million refugees 77 00:04:25,760 --> 00:04:28,080 and migrants have entered Europe in 2015. 78 00:04:29,200 --> 00:04:33,080 Amidst the biggest human migration since the Second World War, 79 00:04:33,120 --> 00:04:36,560 hiding in the wheel well of a plane was the most drastic of any journey 80 00:04:36,600 --> 00:04:37,960 that could be made. 81 00:04:39,520 --> 00:04:41,760 To understand how this was possible, 82 00:04:41,800 --> 00:04:45,040 I met with a pilot who knew all too well. 83 00:04:45,080 --> 00:04:49,000 In 1996, Mike Post was landing this very plane 84 00:04:49,040 --> 00:04:53,200 at Heathrow when a stowaway fell from the wheel well. 85 00:04:53,240 --> 00:04:57,400 This was the first death of its kind recorded in the UK. 86 00:04:57,440 --> 00:04:59,720 It was the middle of the night when we took off from Delhi. 87 00:04:59,760 --> 00:05:01,920 On this occasion, we were held for about ten minutes 88 00:05:01,960 --> 00:05:03,120 at the end of the runway. 89 00:05:03,160 --> 00:05:06,280 And that is when, I suspect, 90 00:05:06,320 --> 00:05:10,560 he ran out and got into the wheel well. 91 00:05:10,600 --> 00:05:13,840 I don't even think I can get here, even if I try. 92 00:05:13,880 --> 00:05:15,440 And doing it under speed, 93 00:05:15,480 --> 00:05:17,560 you just can't really imagine it, can you? 94 00:05:21,200 --> 00:05:22,200 Blimey. 95 00:05:25,600 --> 00:05:26,600 Struggling. 96 00:05:30,440 --> 00:05:31,840 I can see the ledge. 97 00:05:33,840 --> 00:05:35,400 Here. Yes. 98 00:05:35,440 --> 00:05:39,280 So, the wheels would have come up and gone into this big space? 99 00:05:39,320 --> 00:05:40,400 Yes. 100 00:05:40,440 --> 00:05:42,960 And what we think, he was lying just here? 101 00:05:43,000 --> 00:05:45,000 That's the only flat spot. 102 00:05:45,040 --> 00:05:49,000 Do you know how long he would have had before the wheel started 103 00:05:49,040 --> 00:05:51,040 to retract, when it left the runway? 104 00:05:51,080 --> 00:05:54,600 It wouldn't be very long because you call for the undercarriage 105 00:05:54,640 --> 00:05:58,760 to come up when there's confirmed positive rate of climb. 106 00:05:58,800 --> 00:06:01,880 Probably a matter of 15, 20 seconds. 107 00:06:01,920 --> 00:06:04,760 I feel jittery just sitting up here. I don't blame you. 108 00:06:04,800 --> 00:06:08,360 The ledge that he would have ended up on, I don't know, 109 00:06:08,400 --> 00:06:10,880 in my head, I thought it was more inside the plane. 110 00:06:10,920 --> 00:06:15,480 Like, you can see the outer skin of the plane, and it's so thin. 111 00:06:15,520 --> 00:06:20,160 In terms of warmth and in terms of oxygen, he's literally... 112 00:06:20,200 --> 00:06:22,880 He may as well be outside. Indeed. 113 00:06:22,920 --> 00:06:25,880 I'm trembling, this is scary. I don't like it. Yes. It's horrible. 114 00:06:25,920 --> 00:06:28,000 No, I think it's terrifying. 115 00:06:28,040 --> 00:06:30,720 There's no light, so far as I'm aware, in there. 116 00:06:30,760 --> 00:06:33,840 So how he found somewhere to lie... In the dark, yeah. ..I have no idea. 117 00:06:33,880 --> 00:06:35,680 And it's so much bigger than I thought. 118 00:06:35,720 --> 00:06:38,040 Like, it's a massive bit of machinery. It's huge. 119 00:06:38,080 --> 00:06:42,040 The hydraulics are so powerful, they've got to lift these wheels up. 120 00:06:42,080 --> 00:06:43,880 Why would you do this to yourself? 121 00:06:43,920 --> 00:06:47,000 There's something really unpleasant about thinking about, 122 00:06:47,040 --> 00:06:49,640 this was the place that he lost his life. Absolutely. 123 00:06:52,040 --> 00:06:53,640 God, the poor boy. 124 00:06:58,640 --> 00:07:01,560 The sheer desperation that must drive someone to stow away 125 00:07:01,600 --> 00:07:04,200 like this painted a bleak picture of a world where 126 00:07:04,240 --> 00:07:06,160 there were no other options. 127 00:07:11,160 --> 00:07:14,000 But what happened next brought this home in a way I could 128 00:07:14,040 --> 00:07:17,160 never have anticipated 129 00:07:17,200 --> 00:07:20,560 and drew me right into the heart of this story. 130 00:07:24,680 --> 00:07:25,920 I've just landed. 131 00:07:25,960 --> 00:07:27,680 I've been on a flight from Turkey, 132 00:07:27,720 --> 00:07:29,880 and as I switch my phone on, 133 00:07:29,920 --> 00:07:33,040 I've discovered that a body has fallen. 134 00:07:33,080 --> 00:07:35,320 A man is believed to have fallen to his death 135 00:07:35,360 --> 00:07:38,960 in the affluent suburb of Richmond, southwest London, after clinging 136 00:07:39,000 --> 00:07:42,160 to a plane all the way from South Africa to Heathrow. 137 00:07:42,200 --> 00:07:45,840 A body believed to be that of a stowaway was found here, on top 138 00:07:45,880 --> 00:07:47,480 of the white ventilation shafts. 139 00:07:47,520 --> 00:07:51,480 He was found in an electrical box on the roof 140 00:07:51,520 --> 00:07:55,560 with his legs pointing upwards in a V. 141 00:07:55,600 --> 00:07:58,640 Well, there's very little known about the victim himself. 142 00:07:58,680 --> 00:08:01,680 He was discovered early this morning, at about 9:30 local time, 143 00:08:01,720 --> 00:08:04,400 on the roof of the building that you see behind me. 144 00:08:08,640 --> 00:08:10,640 But there was another twist. 145 00:08:12,440 --> 00:08:16,240 The man who'd fallen from the sky had not been alone. 146 00:08:16,280 --> 00:08:19,080 A second man remains critically ill in hospital, 147 00:08:19,120 --> 00:08:23,800 the pair thought to have hidden together on the same flight. 148 00:08:23,840 --> 00:08:26,720 Of course, we also don't know the exact condition of the other 149 00:08:26,760 --> 00:08:29,000 person and whether or not police have been able 150 00:08:29,040 --> 00:08:30,720 to talk to him just yet. 151 00:08:30,760 --> 00:08:34,080 Against all the odds, this second man had survived. 152 00:08:37,000 --> 00:08:38,320 Who was he, 153 00:08:38,360 --> 00:08:39,840 how had he got on the plane 154 00:08:39,880 --> 00:08:43,360 and what was going to happen to him now? 155 00:08:43,400 --> 00:08:45,520 I made it my mission to find out. 156 00:08:51,480 --> 00:08:54,840 NEWSREADER: British Airways says a man fell to his death 157 00:08:54,880 --> 00:08:57,360 after stowing away in the undercarriage of one of its planes. 158 00:08:57,400 --> 00:08:58,560 The plane was travelling 159 00:08:58,600 --> 00:09:01,680 from Johannesburg to London's Heathrow Airport. 160 00:09:01,720 --> 00:09:03,560 Another man, thought to be 24 years old, 161 00:09:03,600 --> 00:09:05,560 is being treated in hospital 162 00:09:05,600 --> 00:09:08,040 after he was found unconscious in the undercarriage. 163 00:09:08,080 --> 00:09:11,840 The miracle man had endured an 11-hour flight, 164 00:09:11,880 --> 00:09:15,040 clinging to the landing gear of a plane. 165 00:09:17,400 --> 00:09:21,200 Of the 109 people known to make such a journey, 166 00:09:21,240 --> 00:09:22,920 only 24 have made it alive. 167 00:09:24,280 --> 00:09:28,040 But no one has ever survived a flight for this long. 168 00:09:31,920 --> 00:09:33,280 Whilst the media was obsessed 169 00:09:33,320 --> 00:09:35,680 with the man who'd fallen from the sky, 170 00:09:35,720 --> 00:09:37,840 I wanted to find the survivor... 171 00:09:39,440 --> 00:09:42,760 ..because here was someone who had defied all the odds 172 00:09:42,800 --> 00:09:44,600 and lived to tell the tale. 173 00:09:44,640 --> 00:09:47,200 Hi, can I just run a quick inquiry past you? 174 00:09:47,240 --> 00:09:49,040 I've been researching a case 175 00:09:49,080 --> 00:09:51,440 of a young guy that stowed away on a British Airways flight. 176 00:09:51,480 --> 00:09:53,280 We were hoping to speak to one of the officers 177 00:09:53,320 --> 00:09:54,400 that dealt with the case. 178 00:09:54,440 --> 00:09:55,840 Over the following weeks, 179 00:09:55,880 --> 00:09:58,800 I spoke to every single authority involved with the survivor. 180 00:09:58,840 --> 00:10:00,400 I'm trying to get hold of someone 181 00:10:00,440 --> 00:10:02,600 in the press department for the Johannesburg police. 182 00:10:02,640 --> 00:10:03,760 Have I got the right number? 183 00:10:03,800 --> 00:10:08,120 I'm trying to speak to someone who works within foreign affairs. 184 00:10:11,080 --> 00:10:12,520 Hello, can you hear me? 185 00:10:12,560 --> 00:10:15,120 Just so I understand the process, what would have happened is, 186 00:10:15,160 --> 00:10:17,320 the Met would have responded to the incident 187 00:10:17,360 --> 00:10:19,000 and then essentially handed it over 188 00:10:19,040 --> 00:10:21,120 because it was a sort of closed case. 189 00:10:21,160 --> 00:10:22,440 OK, thanks very much. 190 00:10:22,480 --> 00:10:24,400 Thanks. Bye-bye. 191 00:10:26,360 --> 00:10:28,240 I even met with the Home Office. 192 00:10:30,040 --> 00:10:33,680 But I came up against one brick wall after another. 193 00:10:36,120 --> 00:10:37,800 I was left frustrated. 194 00:10:37,840 --> 00:10:42,040 This was an important story, and I felt it needed to be told. 195 00:10:43,320 --> 00:10:45,200 Whoever this survivor was, 196 00:10:45,240 --> 00:10:47,800 he'd landed in the middle of a storm. 197 00:10:47,840 --> 00:10:50,440 We are approaching one of the biggest decisions 198 00:10:50,480 --> 00:10:53,000 this country will face in our lifetimes... 199 00:10:53,040 --> 00:10:56,320 Is it not time we took back control of our immigration policy? 200 00:10:56,360 --> 00:11:00,440 ..whether to remain in a reformed European Union, or to leave. 201 00:11:00,480 --> 00:11:04,840 The choice goes to the heart of the kind of country we want to be. 202 00:11:04,880 --> 00:11:09,520 Immigration had become the political football of the referendum, 203 00:11:09,560 --> 00:11:14,040 and compassion for migrants seemed to be at an all-time low. 204 00:11:14,080 --> 00:11:15,320 We've got too many. 205 00:11:15,360 --> 00:11:19,720 This is what the problem is, they've taken over our small town. 206 00:11:19,760 --> 00:11:20,800 I switched tactics 207 00:11:20,840 --> 00:11:24,720 and started to reach out to those working in the asylum system 208 00:11:24,760 --> 00:11:26,920 for information on the survivor. 209 00:11:28,640 --> 00:11:30,560 I was determined that what happened to him 210 00:11:30,600 --> 00:11:34,040 would not be brushed under the carpet and forgotten, 211 00:11:34,080 --> 00:11:36,280 but as much as I wanted to find him, 212 00:11:36,320 --> 00:11:39,760 I had no idea if he wanted to be found. 213 00:11:39,800 --> 00:11:41,480 I'd be so grateful for any help. 214 00:11:41,520 --> 00:11:43,960 Cheers. Bye-bye. 215 00:11:47,080 --> 00:11:50,880 And my efforts paid off with an important breakthrough. 216 00:11:53,000 --> 00:11:55,480 I was forwarded an email from an official source 217 00:11:55,520 --> 00:11:56,960 confirming his name... 218 00:11:59,760 --> 00:12:00,840 ..Themba Cabeka. 219 00:12:03,040 --> 00:12:06,280 I went back to everyone involved in the case. 220 00:12:10,360 --> 00:12:14,040 Trying to find Themba had become an all-consuming task. 221 00:12:16,720 --> 00:12:21,440 Then at the point where I felt like walking away from it all, 222 00:12:21,480 --> 00:12:25,680 I received information from an anonymous source. 223 00:12:25,720 --> 00:12:27,280 Themba was in Liverpool, 224 00:12:27,320 --> 00:12:31,880 and they gave me an address for a Home Office accommodation block. 225 00:12:31,920 --> 00:12:36,320 All the way through this process, it's been like the smallest, 226 00:12:36,360 --> 00:12:40,120 smallest little fragment of detail or information 227 00:12:40,160 --> 00:12:42,240 has been a pretty major breakthrough. 228 00:12:42,280 --> 00:12:44,880 And I think because it's been going on so long, 229 00:12:44,920 --> 00:12:47,120 I've sort of become a bit immune to it. 230 00:12:47,160 --> 00:12:50,280 But this is... in the scale of how... 231 00:12:52,800 --> 00:12:56,160 ..this has been going, this is absolutely enormous. 232 00:12:56,200 --> 00:12:59,480 Like, to have not just a city, but an address, 233 00:12:59,520 --> 00:13:03,480 and to have a name, finally, is.... 234 00:13:03,520 --> 00:13:04,920 ..is massive. 235 00:13:13,680 --> 00:13:17,080 But when I got there, I wasn't allowed inside, 236 00:13:17,120 --> 00:13:18,480 so I tried to speak 237 00:13:18,520 --> 00:13:20,960 to those people coming in and out of the building 238 00:13:21,000 --> 00:13:22,600 to see what I could find out. 239 00:13:27,080 --> 00:13:28,520 It felt like a long shot, 240 00:13:28,560 --> 00:13:31,720 but it also seemed my best bet for finding Themba. 241 00:13:34,240 --> 00:13:37,240 I've just spoken to two young guys. 242 00:13:37,280 --> 00:13:39,800 It's frustrating, because neither of them had heard of him 243 00:13:39,840 --> 00:13:41,240 and it's not that big of a place 244 00:13:41,280 --> 00:13:43,640 that you would have thought they would have done. 245 00:13:57,560 --> 00:14:00,080 After six hours, all I'd managed to do 246 00:14:00,120 --> 00:14:01,880 was speak to a couple of people 247 00:14:01,920 --> 00:14:03,800 and hand out my number. 248 00:14:08,960 --> 00:14:10,840 With no other leads for Themba, 249 00:14:10,880 --> 00:14:14,480 I decided to switch my focus to his companion in the plane, 250 00:14:14,520 --> 00:14:18,360 the man who'd fallen from the sky and died in west London. 251 00:14:19,880 --> 00:14:22,360 If I could find out the details about him, 252 00:14:22,400 --> 00:14:24,760 this might open up a way to Themba. 253 00:14:26,160 --> 00:14:28,360 A Guardian article named the deceased man 254 00:14:28,400 --> 00:14:30,840 as Carlito Vale, from Mozambique. 255 00:14:32,200 --> 00:14:36,520 He was a similar age to me, and had left behind a young wife. 256 00:14:38,800 --> 00:14:41,360 I couldn't work out who had taken these photos 257 00:14:41,400 --> 00:14:42,880 or where they were from, 258 00:14:42,920 --> 00:14:47,200 but they were my first insights into the people behind the story. 259 00:14:50,520 --> 00:14:53,920 I hoped this new information would open more doors, 260 00:14:53,960 --> 00:14:56,360 but the only person who would speak to me 261 00:14:56,400 --> 00:14:59,400 was the pathologist in Carlito's case. 262 00:14:59,440 --> 00:15:03,640 What would have happened to Carlito as, you know, 263 00:15:03,680 --> 00:15:05,160 as the plane took off? 264 00:15:05,200 --> 00:15:09,440 There's going to be two effects from the point of view of Carlito. 265 00:15:09,480 --> 00:15:11,800 As you go higher up, the temperature drops, 266 00:15:11,840 --> 00:15:14,200 so your body temperature would go down. 267 00:15:14,240 --> 00:15:17,560 And ultimately, if you're in that environment for long enough, 268 00:15:17,600 --> 00:15:19,400 you can actually freeze to death. 269 00:15:19,440 --> 00:15:22,200 The other thing is, you're going to have lack of oxygen 270 00:15:22,240 --> 00:15:26,440 and that would give you effects, confusion, nausea, sickness, 271 00:15:26,480 --> 00:15:29,600 simply because you haven't got enough oxygen. 272 00:15:29,640 --> 00:15:32,480 It's surprising in this particular case 273 00:15:32,520 --> 00:15:35,880 that it appeared that he was alive with the heart ticking 274 00:15:35,920 --> 00:15:37,240 when he hit the ground. 275 00:15:37,280 --> 00:15:40,960 If you have injuries that have got bruising around them, 276 00:15:41,000 --> 00:15:43,440 you know that the person was alive when they hit the ground, 277 00:15:43,480 --> 00:15:46,280 and we were able to identify that there were bruises 278 00:15:46,320 --> 00:15:48,960 around a number of the wounds. 279 00:15:49,000 --> 00:15:52,360 Really? So he was alive when he fell out of that plane? 280 00:15:52,400 --> 00:15:55,640 He was alive, but exactly whether he was actually conscious, 281 00:15:55,680 --> 00:15:57,840 that's another matter. So the cause of death 282 00:15:57,880 --> 00:16:00,680 would have been reported as being the trauma. 283 00:16:00,720 --> 00:16:04,080 Indeed, and we use a specific term, we say "multiple injuries". 284 00:16:04,120 --> 00:16:08,520 He died of multiple injuries from impact with the ground. 285 00:16:08,560 --> 00:16:12,240 Being here, I realised Carlito's body was still stuck 286 00:16:12,280 --> 00:16:13,640 in a mortuary fridge 287 00:16:13,680 --> 00:16:16,120 and that he would be buried in a pauper's grave 288 00:16:16,160 --> 00:16:18,520 if no one claimed him. 289 00:16:30,880 --> 00:16:34,240 I wondered if Carlito's wife knew what had happened to him 290 00:16:34,280 --> 00:16:35,600 and where he was now. 291 00:16:39,680 --> 00:16:43,320 The only details I had on her was an unnamed photo. 292 00:16:44,720 --> 00:16:47,480 I struggled to get any further information 293 00:16:47,520 --> 00:16:50,680 except for one of Carlito's friends, 294 00:16:50,720 --> 00:16:52,240 a man called Joao, 295 00:16:52,280 --> 00:16:55,840 who had grown up in Mozambique with Carlito 296 00:16:55,880 --> 00:16:59,080 but was now living in the Netherlands. 297 00:16:59,120 --> 00:17:01,000 Joao was wary of talking to me, 298 00:17:01,040 --> 00:17:05,320 but after weeks of exchanging messages, finally agreed to meet. 299 00:17:07,160 --> 00:17:10,520 I'm hoping that he'll be able to fill in some of the blanks 300 00:17:10,560 --> 00:17:13,080 that I have around who Carlito was, 301 00:17:13,120 --> 00:17:16,800 what he was like as a person 302 00:17:16,840 --> 00:17:20,240 and also what might have led him to do what he did. 303 00:17:23,320 --> 00:17:27,320 For the first time, I felt like I was getting somewhere. 304 00:17:32,520 --> 00:17:35,160 I wouldn't just say Carlito is a friend of mine, 305 00:17:35,200 --> 00:17:37,600 but he is actually a brother to me. 306 00:17:37,640 --> 00:17:44,520 He was a very smart young man, very charismatic. 307 00:17:44,560 --> 00:17:49,440 I have to say, I don't believe that he went willingly, 308 00:17:49,480 --> 00:17:51,600 you know, because the Carlito that I know 309 00:17:51,640 --> 00:17:53,800 wouldn't just take the risk. 310 00:17:53,840 --> 00:17:55,200 I was shocked. 311 00:17:55,240 --> 00:17:59,640 That's when I said it's not possible, 312 00:17:59,680 --> 00:18:02,520 because a few months ago, 313 00:18:02,560 --> 00:18:07,880 I got a phone call and an email from him. 314 00:18:07,920 --> 00:18:11,080 He was trying to travel to Europe. 315 00:18:11,120 --> 00:18:12,800 What did his email to you say? 316 00:18:12,840 --> 00:18:15,920 "What are the steps you need to follow 317 00:18:15,960 --> 00:18:18,600 "to be able to come to Amsterdam?" 318 00:18:18,640 --> 00:18:22,200 It put me in a place of feeling guilty, 319 00:18:22,240 --> 00:18:26,160 because I sent him an e-mail with all the steps 320 00:18:26,200 --> 00:18:27,240 that you need to follow. 321 00:18:27,280 --> 00:18:30,880 You need to have the right papers in hand 322 00:18:30,920 --> 00:18:34,760 and you need to provide the right information, 323 00:18:34,800 --> 00:18:36,480 why are you coming to Europe, 324 00:18:36,520 --> 00:18:38,440 what are you going to do once you're here? 325 00:18:38,480 --> 00:18:41,600 You need to be able to work and take care of yourself. 326 00:18:41,640 --> 00:18:43,320 Maybe if I didn't say anything, 327 00:18:43,360 --> 00:18:45,400 he would maybe have not tried to come. 328 00:18:45,440 --> 00:18:48,480 Maybe I would still have my friend today. You were a good friend. 329 00:18:48,520 --> 00:18:50,240 You did what a good friend would do. 330 00:18:50,280 --> 00:18:52,680 You shouldn't... you can't, you can't feel like that. 331 00:18:52,720 --> 00:18:54,000 That's not fair on yourself. 332 00:18:54,040 --> 00:18:57,400 Like, who knows what the circumstances were? 333 00:18:57,440 --> 00:19:00,600 You know, he travelled with another man, and no one... 334 00:19:00,640 --> 00:19:03,240 ..Do you know anything about this second person? 335 00:19:03,280 --> 00:19:04,560 No, no. 336 00:19:04,600 --> 00:19:05,920 Never heard of him. 337 00:19:05,960 --> 00:19:08,120 I never got any information, 338 00:19:08,160 --> 00:19:11,520 even though the media say there were two of them 339 00:19:11,560 --> 00:19:15,560 but still, I haven't heard much about the second person. 340 00:19:17,560 --> 00:19:21,720 Joao had given me my first glimpse of the man behind the photo, 341 00:19:21,760 --> 00:19:23,800 and his description of his friend 342 00:19:23,840 --> 00:19:26,480 as someone simply dreaming of a better life 343 00:19:26,520 --> 00:19:30,120 was a reminder of an all too familiar migrant story. 344 00:19:31,520 --> 00:19:35,200 While Joao didn't have any contacts for Carlito's wife, 345 00:19:35,240 --> 00:19:37,720 I knew nothing of the survivor, Themba. 346 00:19:37,760 --> 00:19:40,360 It made me wonder if there might be others 347 00:19:40,400 --> 00:19:42,240 from where they had grown up who could help. 348 00:19:44,960 --> 00:19:46,720 But with more than half a million people 349 00:19:46,760 --> 00:19:49,000 living in their home city of Beira, 350 00:19:49,040 --> 00:19:52,000 it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. 351 00:19:53,280 --> 00:19:55,640 I knew Carlito was brought up in an orphanage 352 00:19:55,680 --> 00:19:58,400 and I'd managed to piece together enough of the puzzle 353 00:19:58,440 --> 00:20:01,840 to work out which orphanage this probably was. 354 00:20:01,880 --> 00:20:05,800 I went online and I tracked up all of the roads from the orphanage 355 00:20:05,840 --> 00:20:08,800 and I phoned every single business, every single church, 356 00:20:08,840 --> 00:20:11,680 every single institution in the proximity. 357 00:20:11,720 --> 00:20:13,720 I sent hundreds of messages. 358 00:20:15,320 --> 00:20:16,680 One person replied. 359 00:20:18,240 --> 00:20:22,840 His name was Jose, and he said he was a close friend of Carlito. 360 00:20:22,880 --> 00:20:25,720 He also said he knew Carlito's wife, Anna, 361 00:20:25,760 --> 00:20:28,320 and that he would introduce me to her 362 00:20:28,360 --> 00:20:30,680 if I could get out to Mozambique. 363 00:20:34,920 --> 00:20:38,320 I'm in a cab on my way to Heathrow 364 00:20:38,360 --> 00:20:40,240 to fly to Beira... 365 00:20:43,720 --> 00:20:47,520 ..on the sort of hope, well, with a tiny glimmer of hope 366 00:20:47,560 --> 00:20:52,160 that I might actually be able to find Carlito's family. 367 00:20:52,200 --> 00:20:53,840 And my heart is racing. 368 00:20:57,080 --> 00:21:00,200 I wondered if this trip would finally help me find out 369 00:21:00,240 --> 00:21:01,960 the truth about Carlito. 370 00:21:06,040 --> 00:21:09,560 And crucially, might his family and friends also know 371 00:21:09,600 --> 00:21:12,480 the surviving stowaway, Themba, 372 00:21:12,520 --> 00:21:14,000 and help me find him? 373 00:21:23,600 --> 00:21:28,320 Four years after Carlito Vale fell to his death over my home city, 374 00:21:28,360 --> 00:21:31,680 I found myself flying out to visit his. 375 00:21:31,720 --> 00:21:35,920 On my way to Beira, I couldn't help but imagine Carlito and Themba 376 00:21:35,960 --> 00:21:38,680 stowed away in the wheels below. 377 00:21:38,720 --> 00:21:42,920 I hope meeting Carlito's friend Jose would unlock the mysteries 378 00:21:42,960 --> 00:21:48,080 of this story - how Carlito and Themba made this journey, 379 00:21:48,120 --> 00:21:50,960 what was behind that decision to do it, 380 00:21:51,000 --> 00:21:54,360 and maybe, through Carlito's community, 381 00:21:54,400 --> 00:21:56,280 I could find my way to Themba. 382 00:22:09,560 --> 00:22:13,360 Reflecting on what I had gathered on Carlito, I couldn't help 383 00:22:13,400 --> 00:22:15,560 but notice the contradictions. 384 00:22:15,600 --> 00:22:17,960 On the one hand, he'd been described 385 00:22:18,000 --> 00:22:20,520 as a bright and risk-averse young man. 386 00:22:20,560 --> 00:22:23,560 But on the other hand, Carlito undertook a journey 387 00:22:23,600 --> 00:22:25,240 that was completely reckless 388 00:22:25,280 --> 00:22:27,920 and seemingly abandoned his wife in the process. 389 00:22:31,800 --> 00:22:34,200 It's quite intense being here, 390 00:22:34,240 --> 00:22:37,960 it sort of feels a million miles away from my life, 391 00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:40,120 I know that's a really cliched thing to say. 392 00:22:40,160 --> 00:22:42,480 I'm now starting to question 393 00:22:42,520 --> 00:22:46,280 my decision making, really. 394 00:22:46,320 --> 00:22:49,480 What happens if there's another story 395 00:22:49,520 --> 00:22:51,560 and I'm about to find it out? 396 00:22:51,600 --> 00:22:54,400 Hi, Rich! Hey, Jose! 397 00:22:54,440 --> 00:22:56,080 Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you too. 398 00:22:56,120 --> 00:22:57,640 How's it going? Good, how are you? 399 00:22:57,680 --> 00:23:00,000 Good, thanks. How was your journey? 400 00:23:00,040 --> 00:23:01,720 Not too bad, not too bad. 401 00:23:01,760 --> 00:23:05,240 I'm so grateful, thank you so much, it feels really surreal to be here. 402 00:23:05,280 --> 00:23:07,960 Yeah, welcome, welcome. This is Mozambique! 403 00:23:08,000 --> 00:23:10,560 I met Carlito when I was ten. 404 00:23:10,600 --> 00:23:12,360 He was eight. Seven. 405 00:23:12,400 --> 00:23:13,400 What was he like? 406 00:23:15,040 --> 00:23:16,920 Strong. Clever. 407 00:23:18,160 --> 00:23:22,840 He talks slowly, slowly, like he doesn't know how to talk. 408 00:23:22,880 --> 00:23:24,480 OK! 409 00:23:24,520 --> 00:23:25,800 Yeah. 410 00:23:25,840 --> 00:23:27,000 A good guy. 411 00:23:28,800 --> 00:23:33,200 Carlito and Jose were part of the generation of street kids 412 00:23:33,240 --> 00:23:38,760 left in the wake of the 15-year civil war that ended in 1992 413 00:23:38,800 --> 00:23:43,040 and resulted in the deaths of one million Mozambicans. 414 00:23:44,920 --> 00:23:48,520 They grew up in a series of Western-run orphanages in Beira 415 00:23:48,560 --> 00:23:52,200 that offered opportunities for a more stable future. 416 00:23:54,000 --> 00:23:57,640 He would have been like a good friend, a brother to you? 417 00:23:57,680 --> 00:24:00,520 Yes, and I was older than him. 418 00:24:00,560 --> 00:24:02,720 You were older? Yeah, than him. 419 00:24:02,760 --> 00:24:06,000 So, you lived together for seven years. And then what happened? 420 00:24:06,040 --> 00:24:08,400 Carlito was sent to another orphanage. 421 00:24:08,440 --> 00:24:12,320 From there, we separated for good. 422 00:24:12,360 --> 00:24:15,840 When Carlito was found in London, 423 00:24:15,880 --> 00:24:19,120 it was reported that he was with a second person. Yeah. 424 00:24:19,160 --> 00:24:24,160 And that second person, I believe, survived the trip on the plane. 425 00:24:24,200 --> 00:24:27,120 Yeah. I believe that his name might have been Themba. OK. 426 00:24:27,160 --> 00:24:30,240 But I don't know how Carlito would have met Themba, I don't know if 427 00:24:30,280 --> 00:24:34,160 they were friends, I don't know if the met each other at the airport. 428 00:24:34,200 --> 00:24:37,840 They were friends, but not from a long time. OK. 429 00:24:37,880 --> 00:24:41,440 I'm sure that they met maybe at the airport. 430 00:24:42,920 --> 00:24:46,280 This was new information about Themba and I was keen 431 00:24:46,320 --> 00:24:48,840 to pick Jose's brains further. 432 00:24:48,880 --> 00:24:51,960 I heard from a friend of mine who is living in South Africa. 433 00:24:52,000 --> 00:24:55,600 He heard that someone saw him there. 434 00:24:55,640 --> 00:24:58,040 After the flight with Carlito? Yes, yes. 435 00:24:58,080 --> 00:25:00,080 So, he's back in South Africa? Yeah. 436 00:25:00,120 --> 00:25:03,760 So, I tried to contact him, to get his address, 437 00:25:03,800 --> 00:25:07,800 but unfortunately, didn't manage to get the address. OK. 438 00:25:07,840 --> 00:25:10,920 So it means that, right now, no-one knows where is he. 439 00:25:10,960 --> 00:25:13,160 But they know who he is? 440 00:25:13,200 --> 00:25:14,520 Yeah. Wow. 441 00:25:16,000 --> 00:25:19,320 And do we know anything about him, do we know how old he is or...? 442 00:25:19,360 --> 00:25:22,800 Mmm, I don't know. 443 00:25:22,840 --> 00:25:25,120 Do we know where he and Carlito met? 444 00:25:26,480 --> 00:25:29,200 So, he's not from Beira, he's never lived in Beira? 445 00:25:29,240 --> 00:25:32,040 Actually, I don't know if he's from Beira or somewhere else, 446 00:25:32,080 --> 00:25:36,880 maybe out of town or South Africa, another country. 447 00:25:36,920 --> 00:25:40,000 But Themba is not a Mozambican name. 448 00:25:40,040 --> 00:25:42,800 It looks like South Africa. OK. 449 00:25:42,840 --> 00:25:47,800 I think Themba is the one who encouraged Carlito 450 00:25:47,840 --> 00:25:51,560 to get the flight to England. 451 00:25:51,600 --> 00:25:55,400 I'm sure that someone helped them. At the airport? Yes. 452 00:25:55,440 --> 00:25:57,960 To get them to the plane? Yes. 453 00:25:58,000 --> 00:26:00,760 Because there are security everywhere. 454 00:26:00,800 --> 00:26:03,240 It's impossible to get in the aeroplane. 455 00:26:03,280 --> 00:26:05,320 That's what I thought. 456 00:26:05,360 --> 00:26:09,720 So, I'm sure that they paid to get in the aeroplane... Yeah. 457 00:26:09,760 --> 00:26:13,240 ..they had to pay someone, like a security. 458 00:26:13,280 --> 00:26:16,120 And then, even when he gets to the UK, 459 00:26:16,160 --> 00:26:18,560 did he think that he could just walk away? It was freezing. 460 00:26:18,600 --> 00:26:22,320 It was freezing. Yeah, it would have been. It was freezing. 461 00:26:22,360 --> 00:26:25,520 Themba is incredibly lucky to have survived. 462 00:26:25,560 --> 00:26:27,040 Yes, he's very lucky. 463 00:26:27,080 --> 00:26:29,320 Unbelievable that he survived. 464 00:26:30,680 --> 00:26:32,760 He's lucky. Very lucky. 465 00:26:32,800 --> 00:26:34,000 Yeah, he's lucky. 466 00:26:39,320 --> 00:26:40,840 Can you imagine if you paid someone, 467 00:26:40,880 --> 00:26:43,440 you think you were going to get on board a plane, 468 00:26:43,480 --> 00:26:46,960 you think you're going to even end up sitting in a seat. 469 00:26:47,000 --> 00:26:50,080 You get there, the adrenaline's going, you're on the airport, 470 00:26:50,120 --> 00:26:54,120 you have to do something to get out of the sight of everyone 471 00:26:54,160 --> 00:26:56,640 and you end up having to go up there? 472 00:26:56,680 --> 00:27:00,160 So it could be that he didn't intend to be there, 473 00:27:00,200 --> 00:27:02,120 he didn't think he was going to be there 474 00:27:02,160 --> 00:27:05,760 and then he found himself in the wheel well of the plane. 475 00:27:05,800 --> 00:27:08,320 And that would have been fucking terrifying. 476 00:27:16,400 --> 00:27:21,160 The next day, Jose took me to meet Annah, Carlito's wife. 477 00:27:22,600 --> 00:27:24,360 From all of my investigations, 478 00:27:24,400 --> 00:27:26,480 she was the one person who would know 479 00:27:26,520 --> 00:27:28,920 the truth about Carlito and Themba. 480 00:27:31,680 --> 00:27:34,200 It had taken me years to locate Annah 481 00:27:34,240 --> 00:27:37,560 and I was feeling nervous about meeting her. 482 00:27:37,600 --> 00:27:41,520 I just really hope that she doesn't mind me calling in. 483 00:27:43,040 --> 00:27:45,640 You don't think so? I don't think so. You think she'll be OK? Yeah. 484 00:27:45,680 --> 00:27:47,840 OK. That's good. Yeah. 485 00:27:58,120 --> 00:28:00,560 But when I arrived at her house, 486 00:28:00,600 --> 00:28:02,920 there was another surprise. 487 00:28:02,960 --> 00:28:05,280 Carlito and Annah have a daughter. 488 00:28:06,640 --> 00:28:08,840 Hello. 489 00:28:08,880 --> 00:28:11,760 It's nice to meet you. And you. I'm Rich. 490 00:28:13,600 --> 00:28:15,360 Chemillah is 11 years old, 491 00:28:15,400 --> 00:28:18,880 and I was instantly struck by how much she looked like her dad. 492 00:28:18,920 --> 00:28:21,280 SHE READS TO HERSELF 493 00:28:28,440 --> 00:28:32,160 I've only been able to find out a few details about who Carlito was, 494 00:28:32,200 --> 00:28:35,840 but I wondered if you could describe him for me? 495 00:28:49,240 --> 00:28:53,480 Can you tell me a little bit about where you thought... 496 00:28:53,520 --> 00:28:57,840 you know, what Carlito was doing on the run-up to the accident? 497 00:30:05,320 --> 00:30:08,960 Did you ever think that Carlito would do something like this? 498 00:30:18,360 --> 00:30:22,320 There was a second person that went with Carlito that day, 499 00:30:22,360 --> 00:30:27,000 do you have any idea who that person is or how they met one another? 500 00:30:27,040 --> 00:30:28,280 No. 501 00:30:32,720 --> 00:30:36,440 Chemillah seemed wary from the moment I arrived, 502 00:30:36,480 --> 00:30:40,640 but when Annah and I started talking about photographs of her dad, 503 00:30:40,680 --> 00:30:42,240 she joined us. 504 00:30:42,280 --> 00:30:46,360 I've only seen two pictures of you two. 505 00:30:46,400 --> 00:30:49,800 I wondered if Annah could explain when this photo was taken? 506 00:30:54,120 --> 00:30:56,080 How old were you two at that point? 507 00:30:59,040 --> 00:31:01,760 16. No! Really? 508 00:31:01,800 --> 00:31:03,320 Had you just met one another? 509 00:31:04,880 --> 00:31:07,080 JOSE: 510 00:31:16,080 --> 00:31:17,880 ANNAH: 511 00:31:18,920 --> 00:31:21,120 First time she's seen a picture. 512 00:31:21,160 --> 00:31:23,160 The first time? 513 00:31:23,200 --> 00:31:26,080 That she's seen a picture of her dad? Yes. 514 00:31:26,120 --> 00:31:28,040 Aw, I'm sorry. 515 00:31:30,240 --> 00:31:31,480 I don't want to upset her. 516 00:31:35,920 --> 00:31:39,440 Whilst it had been hard to see Chemillah get so upset, 517 00:31:39,480 --> 00:31:42,680 Annah assured me they appreciated me coming to visit 518 00:31:42,720 --> 00:31:45,160 and to be able to talk about Carlito. 519 00:31:58,240 --> 00:32:03,160 Being in Beira had given me new insights into who Carlito was 520 00:32:03,200 --> 00:32:06,120 and some of the difficulties he'd been through that may have led 521 00:32:06,160 --> 00:32:08,440 him to stow away with Themba. 522 00:32:08,480 --> 00:32:13,680 But Carlito's life, like anyone else's, was complicated. 523 00:32:13,720 --> 00:32:16,960 And whilst I'd hoped Annah might be the person who could 524 00:32:17,000 --> 00:32:20,640 fill in the blanks, she had been completely in the dark 525 00:32:20,680 --> 00:32:23,160 about her husband's plan. 526 00:32:23,200 --> 00:32:27,160 What Carlito had done and his death 527 00:32:27,200 --> 00:32:30,640 had come as a devastating shock to their family 528 00:32:30,680 --> 00:32:34,080 and was clearly something they were still coming to terms with. 529 00:32:37,920 --> 00:32:42,560 The hope they would lead me to Themba, like so many of my efforts, 530 00:32:42,600 --> 00:32:45,400 had only resulted in more frustrations. 531 00:32:46,440 --> 00:32:50,720 He was not from this community, and I was no closer to understanding 532 00:32:50,760 --> 00:32:54,080 how he and Carlito knew each other, 533 00:32:54,120 --> 00:32:57,520 how they had smuggled themselves onto the plane 534 00:32:57,560 --> 00:33:02,400 and what had happened on that journey for one of them to live 535 00:33:02,440 --> 00:33:04,600 and the other to fall to his death. 536 00:33:07,320 --> 00:33:11,560 Back in the UK, I followed up Jose's information that Themba 537 00:33:11,600 --> 00:33:15,040 might now be back in South Africa 538 00:33:15,080 --> 00:33:17,240 but was unable to verify this. 539 00:33:19,280 --> 00:33:20,720 For every step forward, 540 00:33:20,760 --> 00:33:23,520 it felt like I was sliding two steps backwards. 541 00:33:37,400 --> 00:33:40,640 Then, months later, on Christmas Eve, 542 00:33:40,680 --> 00:33:43,000 having all but given up, 543 00:33:43,040 --> 00:33:47,280 I got a phone call from a very unexpected source. 544 00:33:47,320 --> 00:33:49,600 MAN ON PHONE: 545 00:34:20,000 --> 00:34:22,760 I'm literally on my way to my family's for Christmas. 546 00:34:22,800 --> 00:34:25,800 The phone rings, I missed the call, I just played back the voicemail. 547 00:34:25,840 --> 00:34:27,440 It's someone from Liverpool saying 548 00:34:27,480 --> 00:34:30,600 that they've found Thembo, they know who he is and they can put me 549 00:34:30,640 --> 00:34:33,480 in contact with him. I can't believe it. 550 00:34:33,520 --> 00:34:36,800 Bloody hell. Imagine if we found him. Fuck! 551 00:34:38,640 --> 00:34:43,680 Three years ago, I left Liverpool dejected. At the time, I put 552 00:34:43,720 --> 00:34:47,600 it down as just another dead end, but now it looks 553 00:34:47,640 --> 00:34:51,840 like it's what helped me find Thembo, the survivor, 554 00:34:51,880 --> 00:34:56,000 only he's now going by the name Justin, which might explain why 555 00:34:56,040 --> 00:34:57,960 I've struggled to find him. 556 00:35:01,880 --> 00:35:07,080 I cannot believe that I'm potentially going to meet our man. 557 00:35:07,120 --> 00:35:09,800 I have no idea whether he's going to turn up or not. 558 00:35:22,240 --> 00:35:26,480 I've travelled thousands of miles in search of the truth, and now 559 00:35:26,520 --> 00:35:28,800 I'm back where I first started. 560 00:35:28,840 --> 00:35:33,480 Could I finally be about to get the answers I've been looking for? 561 00:35:39,360 --> 00:35:40,760 Hello! 562 00:35:40,800 --> 00:35:43,320 I'm Rich. Nice to meet you. 563 00:35:43,360 --> 00:35:44,800 Oh, my goodness! Yeah, man. 564 00:35:44,840 --> 00:35:48,400 I can't believe that I've finally, erm...found you. 565 00:35:50,640 --> 00:35:51,920 And how are you now? 566 00:35:56,320 --> 00:35:57,800 Yeah, they are. 567 00:35:57,840 --> 00:36:00,920 Liverpool is, like, renowned in the whole of the UK as one 568 00:36:00,960 --> 00:36:02,280 of the friendliest cities. 569 00:36:02,320 --> 00:36:04,760 Like, everyone's really super lovely. 570 00:36:04,800 --> 00:36:08,000 I had been worried that after everything he'd been through, 571 00:36:08,040 --> 00:36:10,760 Justin might be apprehensive about speaking to me. 572 00:36:10,800 --> 00:36:14,800 But on the contrary, he is keen to tell his story and shine a light 573 00:36:14,840 --> 00:36:17,400 on the experience of those seeking asylum. 574 00:36:30,120 --> 00:36:31,280 You didn't know her. 575 00:36:39,320 --> 00:36:43,560 Justin grew up in a poverty stricken township in Johannesburg 576 00:36:43,600 --> 00:36:46,200 where violence and gangs left him broken. 577 00:36:51,960 --> 00:36:54,280 So you were, essentially, on your own as a child? 578 00:36:54,320 --> 00:36:56,280 Yeah. Looking after yourself. Yeah. 579 00:36:56,320 --> 00:37:00,320 And is that how you ended up being homeless? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. 580 00:37:05,760 --> 00:37:07,120 How old were you when that happened? 581 00:37:10,480 --> 00:37:14,800 I asked Justin how he had met Carlito and what their relationship 582 00:37:14,840 --> 00:37:16,320 was like. 583 00:37:26,440 --> 00:37:27,840 A tent? Yeah. 584 00:37:44,640 --> 00:37:45,640 Yeah. Yeah. 585 00:37:49,120 --> 00:37:53,960 Justin tells me he reached breaking point, and with Carlito still keen 586 00:37:54,000 --> 00:37:57,000 to get to Europe, this was when they came up with the idea 587 00:37:57,040 --> 00:37:58,640 to stow away together. 588 00:37:58,680 --> 00:38:01,200 And where did the plan of getting on a plane come from? 589 00:38:09,240 --> 00:38:10,760 Engineering. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 590 00:38:31,080 --> 00:38:35,040 Whilst Justin seems proud of the preparations they had made, 591 00:38:35,080 --> 00:38:39,360 I'm struck by how neither of them seem to have any idea how dangerous 592 00:38:39,400 --> 00:38:40,400 this plan was. 593 00:38:41,960 --> 00:38:45,640 Did you know what would happen to the oxygen at that altitude? 594 00:39:06,040 --> 00:39:09,960 I had always thought someone else must have been involved to help them 595 00:39:10,000 --> 00:39:12,120 get into the plane, 596 00:39:12,160 --> 00:39:15,760 but Justin insists they did it by themselves. 597 00:39:15,800 --> 00:39:17,920 How did you get onto the runway? 598 00:39:27,720 --> 00:39:30,640 So you put on loads of layers because you knew it'd be cold. Yeah. 599 00:39:30,680 --> 00:39:35,280 I find it really difficult to even imagine what being in that plane 600 00:39:35,320 --> 00:39:36,920 would have been like. 601 00:39:48,400 --> 00:39:49,640 It's like, "Hmmm." 602 00:39:49,680 --> 00:39:53,440 And then the wheels were still on the, on the thing you were holding? 603 00:39:53,480 --> 00:39:55,680 Were you holding on to something inside the plane? 604 00:39:59,000 --> 00:40:01,640 You could, presumably, you could see the wheels come back in? 605 00:40:25,400 --> 00:40:29,680 So you can remember that, but then it just goes blank? Yeah. 606 00:40:29,720 --> 00:40:33,360 It was heartbreaking to hear Justin describe the last time 607 00:40:33,400 --> 00:40:37,040 he and Carlito were together and how in their excitement 608 00:40:37,080 --> 00:40:40,880 for having got into the plane, they had no idea of the horrors 609 00:40:40,920 --> 00:40:42,240 about to unfold. 610 00:40:51,280 --> 00:40:54,400 I see. So when you were inside, you wrapped your arm around, like, 611 00:40:54,440 --> 00:40:57,440 some cabling or something inside the plane and it got hot. 612 00:41:03,120 --> 00:41:07,760 Without knowing it, wrapping his arms in the cables saved his life. 613 00:41:07,800 --> 00:41:11,600 Unconscious for the rest of the flight, Justin did not know 614 00:41:11,640 --> 00:41:14,640 Carlito fell out of the plane when the wheels were opened. 615 00:41:17,040 --> 00:41:20,600 The next thing he remembers is lying on the tarmac at Heathrow, 616 00:41:20,640 --> 00:41:23,240 semi-conscious with a shattered leg. 617 00:41:25,080 --> 00:41:28,560 Can you remember falling out of the plane at Heathrow? 618 00:42:03,280 --> 00:42:07,320 Justin has sustained life-changing injuries from the flight, 619 00:42:07,360 --> 00:42:10,480 but the thing he keeps returning to throughout our conversation 620 00:42:10,520 --> 00:42:13,280 is the loss of Carlito and the guilt 621 00:42:13,320 --> 00:42:16,960 he feels that he made it and his friend didn't. 622 00:43:03,000 --> 00:43:06,680 Justin has given me a harrowing insight into the circumstances 623 00:43:06,720 --> 00:43:11,240 that led him to stowaway, but Carlito's motivations for getting 624 00:43:11,280 --> 00:43:15,560 on the plane still remain unclear and it's left me with a sadness 625 00:43:15,600 --> 00:43:18,360 that his death could have been avoided. 626 00:43:20,960 --> 00:43:26,880 But I'm happy and proud that the UK has given Justin sanctuary 627 00:43:26,920 --> 00:43:30,600 and that after everything he's been through, he is now safe 628 00:43:30,640 --> 00:43:33,880 and has a chance to build a future for himself. 629 00:43:33,920 --> 00:43:37,120 You sort of look out the window and see Liverpool sort of going to work 630 00:43:37,160 --> 00:43:38,960 and just going about their normal life, 631 00:43:39,000 --> 00:43:41,680 and then this person is just walking alongside them... 632 00:43:43,840 --> 00:43:45,840 ..with this absolutely... 633 00:43:48,320 --> 00:43:52,040 ..heartbreaking and extreme and hardcore story. 634 00:43:53,120 --> 00:43:57,240 It's sort of... I don't know. 635 00:44:04,200 --> 00:44:07,960 We're inundated every day by stories of unknown people 636 00:44:08,000 --> 00:44:10,960 risking their lives to get into the UK. 637 00:44:12,840 --> 00:44:16,280 It's taken me five years to piece together the story 638 00:44:16,320 --> 00:44:17,680 of two such people. 639 00:44:21,920 --> 00:44:25,480 I've retraced their footsteps and what I found is a story 640 00:44:25,520 --> 00:44:29,800 of desperation and naivety, but also of hope. 641 00:44:33,000 --> 00:44:37,720 It's easy to ignore or tune out of the news of migrants, 642 00:44:37,760 --> 00:44:42,280 but behind every single headline, there's a person with a dream 643 00:44:42,320 --> 00:44:45,520 just fighting for the right to live their life. 644 00:45:06,120 --> 00:45:09,040 Subtitles by Red Bee Media