An investigation has been launched after a body was found in the wheel well of a United Airlines jet that landed in Hawaii on Tuesday, the airline told The Daily Caller.
“A body was discovered in the wheel well of one of the main landing gear of a United aircraft upon arrival at Maui's Kahului Airport on Tuesday,” United Airlines told the Daily Caller. “United Airlines is cooperating with law enforcement agencies in the investigation.”
Boeing 787-10 Flight 202 arrived from Chicago. “The wheelhouse was only accessible from outside the aircraft. At this time, it is not clear when or how the individual gained access to the wheelhouse,” the airline told the Daily Caller.
Maui Police Department (MPD) is investigating the death of a person who was already dead at the time of his discovery, MPD spokeswoman Alana Pico said. said New York Times.
Police said the deceased had not been formally identified as a stowaway. (Related article: Judge rules that 70-year-old woman is a “serial stowaway” after repeatedly slipping through airport security checkpoints for years)
In April 2014, Kahului witnessed a similar incident in which a 15-and-a-half-year-old stowaway survived on a Hawaiian Airlines flight from San Jose, California, to Maui. reported.
Svetlana Dali, a Russian national and legal U.S. resident, was charged as a stowaway on a Delta flight from New York in November. She is said to have hid in the plane's bathroom. She was arrested and deported to the United States and appeared in court in Brooklyn, New York, in December.
She then tried to flee to Canada by bus on Dec. 16 but was arrested, ABC 7 reportedsaid a police official.
This is the second arrest this month for Delta Air Lines stowaway suspect Svetlana Dali, who was first arrested by the FBI on December 4 on suspicion of stowing away on a flight from the United States to France. pic.twitter.com/NS9JiRRr3q
— ABC News Live (@ABCNewsLive) December 17, 2024
In November 2021, a 26-year-old man survived after stowing away in the garage on an American Airlines flight from Guatemala to Miami.
Stowaways are at serious risk because they can fall off the plane's landing gear and be killed, or be crushed by the landing gear during retraction. According to to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Stowaways can also die from the heat from the plane's engine or from the extreme cold and lack of oxygen at high altitude.
The FAA said eight out of 10 stowaways died, but there were some notable survivors. Cuban Stowaway on Havana-Madrid flight in 1969 and Hawaiian Airlines stowaway in 2014 incident.
An American became the first stowaway to board the first French flight to cross the North Atlantic, according to the FAA.
The Daily Caller contacted the Maui Police Department, but did not receive a response as of press time.
