In a tragic and disturbing discovery, the body of an unknown person was found in the wheel well of a United Airlines plane that had just landed in Hawaii after a flight from Chicago. The grim find has launched a police investigation and raised serious questions about airport security measures.
Flight’s Circuitous Journey Before Macabre Find
The United flight in question, which landed at Kahului Airport on the island of Maui on Christmas Eve, had originated earlier that morning from Chicago’s bustling O’Hare International Airport. However, the aircraft had previously operated a flight from São Paulo, Brazil before arriving in Chicago.
It remains unclear at which point the unidentified person accessed the wheel well and if they had been in the compartment since the plane’s time in Brazil or only after it reached the United States. The lengthy international itinerary only compounds the mystery surrounding the stowaway’s identity and how they met their untimely demise.
Restricted Area Breach Stuns Authorities
In a statement to local media, a United Airlines spokesperson emphasized that the aircraft’s wheel well is only accessible from the outside, not from the plane’s interior cabin. This raises the disturbing prospect that the stowaway somehow managed to infiltrate the highly restricted area of the airport tarmac and crawl into the compartment undetected.
“The wheel well was only accessible from outside of the aircraft. At this time, it is not clear how or when the person accessed the wheel well.”
United Airlines spokesperson to CBS News
Major international airports employ multiple layers of security, surveillance, and personnel to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive locations such as the asphalt apron where planes park for boarding and servicing. The notion that someone could breach these defenses to secretively board a plane has left authorities alarmed.
Stowaway Risks Well-Documented Yet Persistent
While incredibly rare, tragic stowaway incidents involving wheel wells are not unheard of in modern aviation. The extreme risks of hiding in these unheated, unpressurized compartments are well-known, with virtually no chance of survival on high-altitude flights due to a lethal combination of frigid temperatures, lack of oxygen, and crushing g-forces.
- Freezing temperatures plummeting far below zero
- Lack of oxygen at cruising altitudes over 35,000 feet
- Risk of being crushed by the retracting landing gear
- Possibility of falling out when gear lowers for landing
Yet despite the well-documented perils, desperate individuals occasionally still attempt the exceedingly dangerous act, likely as a means to clandestinely cross borders or flee hardship. Underscoring the long odds of survival, it is believe many wheel well stowaways perish during flight, their bodies sometimes not found until the plane lands at its destination, as appears to be the tragic circumstances in this latest case.
Investigation Underway as Answers Sought
Maui police have launched an investigation into the disturbing discovery, although many key details remain unknown at this early stage, including clues to the deceased’s identity. Authorities will face challenging questions as they attempt to retrace the stowaway’s path and determine where, when and how they accessed the aircraft undetected.
“The Maui Police Department is currently conducting an active investigation regarding a deceased individual discovered on an incoming flight from the mainland this afternoon.”
Maui Police Department statement
No doubt airport and airline security protocols will come under intense scrutiny in light of this alarming incident. While the utmost precautions are taken, the discovery of the body in the United jet’s wheel well exposes potential vulnerabilities in the ability to thoroughly safeguard the highly sensitive airside sections of airports where aircraft operate.
As the investigation unfolds in the coming days, authorities hope to piece together the stowaway’s identity and movements to determine how this heartbreaking and ultimately fatal act could have transpired unnoticed until the plane touched down in Hawaii. The tragic case serves as a somber reminder of the extreme dangers of clandestine attempts to access aircraft and bypass aviation security measures.
