Malaysia said Saturday it has ordered a full inquiry into how a Palestinian stowaway hid in the nose wheel well of a plane on a flight to Singapore.

"I am very unhappy with the preliminary report on the incident. The airport is a security area, this should not have happened," Transport Minister Chan Kong Choy said according to the state Bernama news agency.

The 27-year-old Palestinian stowaway, Osama R.M. Shublaq, hid in the nose wheel well of Singapore Airlines flight SQ 119 from Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), The Straits Times said.

He is reported to have fallen about 2.4 metres (8 feet) from the SIA plane's wheel well to the ground after the Boeing 777-2000 taxied to a gate at Singapore Changi Airport on Thursday night.

He was charged with entering Singapore without a valid pass or permit, and if convicted he could be jailed for up to six months, caned three times or more, or fined up to 6,000 Singapore dollars (4,000 US).

Chan said the Department of Civil Aviation and KLIA's operator Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad has been ordered to investigate the incident and a report was expected to be submitted on Tuesday.

The Straits Times said Malaysian authorities are puzzled how he breached ground security at KLIA and climbed into the plane's wheel well without being spotted.

Azharuddin A. Rahman, a director at the Department of Civil Aviation Malaysia, was quoted as saying: "You've got to be a superhero to try such a thing!"

It is believed the short journey time probably saved the stowaway because the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore flight takes only about 35 minutes.