Dutch police are investigating the possibility of human trafficking after finding on Thursday the boy who fell from a compartment on a plane at Maastricht Aachen airport in Limburg.
“For us, it’s a miracle,” a Dutch police spokesman said. “Usually, when someone is saved like that, they die because of the cold or the lack of oxygen.” said Marvin Engh, a spokesman for the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee, one of the country’s national police forces.
Police were taken to a hospital with hypothermia, but have since fully recovered, police said.
He began his journey to Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, and went from there to Istanbul, Turkey, before continuing on to London, according to Engh.
The plane reached a maximum altitude of 5,791 meters (19,000 feet) and a speed of 460 miles per hour.
The policeman’s flight had arrived in London from Istanbul in the early hours of Thursday morning and he spent three hours there before leaving for Maastricht.
Stansted officials confirmed that the flight on which the policeman was traveling was operated by the airline, which is the national flag carrier of Turkey.
Police do not know how he was saved on his other flights, but a spokesman for London Stansted Airport told CNN he did not board the plane while he was there. which means it is likely to go up to THY6305 in Istanbul.
Turkish Airlines did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
She applied for asylum and her claim is managed by the Immigration and Naturalization Service of the Netherlands (INS), Engh said.
A Justice Ministry spokesman, Bart Vis, said the INS could not comment on individual cases due to privacy laws.
Investigation into human smuggling is a standard procedure and the health and well-being of the child is a priority for the authorities, Dutch police said.
CNN’s Rosanne Roobeek contributed to this report.