Keith Sapsford was just 14 years old when he stowed away on an airliner, fell out of the wheel well, and plummeted to his death on Feb. 22, 1970. His harrowing final moments were captured by photographer John Gilpin, who happened to be casually snapping photos while waiting to board his flight.
The Australian teenager had just run away from boarding school and longed to see the world. After sneaking onto the tarmac of Sydney International Airport, he hid inside a Tokyo-bound plane — but fell to his death soon after takeoff.
“All my son wanted to do was to see the world,” his father Charles Sapsford later recalled. “He had itchy feet. His determination to see how the rest of the world lives has cost him his life.”
