HONG KONG (The Adobo Chronicles® ) – Grammy Award winner Chris Brown has eluded immigration authorities in the Philippines and is now safe and sound in Hong Kong.

Brown was in Manila for a one-day concert on Tuesday and was prevented from leaving the country because of fraud charges brought against him and his promoter in connection with a New Year’s Eve concert last year.  The singer failed to show up for the scheduled gig at the Philippine Arena, even after being paid $1 Million in advance.

Hong Kong authorities said that Brown arrived holed up in the wheel well of a China Airlines jumbo jet.  That he survived the two-hour flight from Manila below freezing cold weather at oxygen-depleted heights without dying or falling out of the wheel well was in itself, a miracle, the authorities said.

However, this is not the first time a person has attempted to do this.

In 2014, a 16-year-old boy survived a five-hour flight from California to Hawaii after he sneaked into the wheel well of a Hawaiian Airlines plane.

Eyewitnesses said that early this morning, Brown asked immigration officers if he could step outside the airport terminal  where he was being held in order to smoke a cigarette. Just like most airports, the Ninoy Aquino International Airport is a smoke-free facility.  The officers led him into the tarmac, where he suddenly disappeared.

It was not until Philippine authorities received word from Hong Kong that they had realized what happened.

The immigration officers assigned to watch over Brown have been put on administrative leave pending investigation of the great escape.