Apparently the picture of the boy falling from the DC-8 is authentic. In February 1970 a 14 year old Australian boy, Keith Sapsford, stowed away aboard a JAL DC-8 byt climbing into a wheel well. He fell when the landing gear began their retract cycle. John Gilpin, an amateur photographer who was testing a new camera lens, caught the incident, and claims not to have noticed it until after he developed the film.
The photograph shows the landing gear still partly extended, but one account says that Sapsford climbed into the wheel well and seated himself atop a closed wheel-well door. The door is supposed to close while the gear is down, to aid in streamlining the plane; it only opens while the gear extends or retracts. The effect was like a stage trap door and Sapsford fell to his death. (So it’s possible Gilpin might have forged the picture, but his photo is consistent with the facts and nobody came up with evidence of forgery).
Googling “DC-8” and “Sapsford” will bring you to quite a few sites about the event, including:
Apparently the picture of the boy falling from the DC-8 is authentic. In February 1970 a 14 year old Australian boy, Keith Sapsford, stowed away aboard a JAL DC-8 byt climbing into a wheel well. He fell when the landing gear began their retract cycle. John Gilpin, an amateur photographer who was testing a new camera lens, caught the incident, and claims not to have noticed it until after he developed the film.
The photograph shows the landing gear still partly extended, but one account says that Sapsford climbed into the wheel well and seated himself atop a closed wheel-well door. The door is supposed to close while the gear is down, to aid in streamlining the plane; it only opens while the gear extends or retracts. The effect was like a stage trap door and Sapsford fell to his death. (So it’s possible Gilpin might have forged the picture, but his photo is consistent with the facts and nobody came up with evidence of forgery).
Googling “DC-8” and “Sapsford” will bring you to quite a few sites about the event, including:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stowaway
http://www.cryonie.com/en/2010/sadness.php