A 75-year-old Welsh man, Brian Robson, is appealing for help to find two Irish men who assisted him in a bizarre 1965 journey from Australia to the UK inside a wooden crate. Robson, originally from Cardiff, was a 19-year-old railway worker in Melbourne when homesickness struck, but he could not afford the £700 airfare on his £40 monthly salary.
Robson devised a plan to buy a crate the size of a mini-fridge, pack it with pillows, a suitcase, a Beatles songbook, and two bottles for water and urine, and have himself shipped as freight. Two Irish friends, whom he only knew as Paul and John, nailed the crate shut and booked him as cargo on a Qantas flight from Melbourne to London. However, the flight was full, and he was transferred to a PanAm flight that took him to Los Angeles instead.
Upon arrival in the US, Robson was discovered by startled customs officials after a man spotted him through a knot hole. He was interrogated by the FBI but cleared and flown to London on a regular passenger flight. He later resumed his life in the UK. Robson described the experience as 'quite horrific,' noting he was repeatedly stored upside down during the four-day ordeal.
Nearly 60 years later, Robson wants to thank Paul and John and buy them a drink. He recalled that Paul was initially against the plan, but John persuaded him to help. Robson had written to them after the journey but never received a reply. He admitted the escapade was 'stupidity,' adding, 'If my kids tried it, I would kill them. But it was a different time.'
