A man who survived hidden in the nose wheel well of a plane on a flight from Malaysia has been charged with entering Singapore without a valid pass or permit, according to a report Saturday.

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 777-200 taxied to a gate at Singapore Changi Airport on Thursday night.

He was arrested at 12:30 am on Friday (1630 GMT Thursday) by airport police and was charged in a Singapore court Friday.

If convicted he could be jailed for up to six months, caned three times or more, or fined up to 6000 dollars (4000 US).

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

Azharuddin A. Rahman, a director at the Department of Civil Aviation Malaysia, told The Straits Times: "You've got to be a superhero to try such a thing!"

Azmi Murad, senior manager of operations of Malaysia Airports Holdings, which runs KLIA, said the airport would cooperate with Singapore authorities in investigations.

Airline industry sources believe this is the first case of a stowaway in a wheel well at Changi Airport, according to the newspaper.

Changi Airport is known for its strict security measures, including armed military and police on patrol.

An experienced pilot was quoted saying: "He could have been crushed by the retraction nose wheel, depending on where and how he was positioned."

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