A body was discovered in the wheel well of a passenger plane that landed at an airport in Hawaii. According to Reuters, United Airlines stated that on the 24th (local time), a body was found in the wheel well of one of the main landing gears after a plane landed at Kahului Airport in Maui. The aircraft had departed from O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware.
United Airlines explained that the wheel well is accessible only from outside the aircraft, and it remains unclear how and when the individual accessed the compartment. The airline is cooperating with the authorities’ investigation. The Maui Police Department is currently investigating the case, but the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The wheel wells and cargo areas of passenger planes can reach temperatures between minus 50 to 60 degrees Celsius and suffer from a lack of oxygen, making survival difficult for stowaways. From 1974 to 2021, 132 people attempted to stow away in the wheel wells of civilian aircraft, but the survival rate was only 23%, according to the FAA. However, there have been some reports of stowaways surviving. In December of last year, an injured person was discovered in the cargo hold of an Air Algerie plane in Paris, France. In January 2022, a stowaway was found under the front wheel of a Cargolux cargo plane that arrived at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport from South Africa via Kenya.