Dead Body Found in Boeing Wheel Well, Police Investigating
Authorities in Maui, Hawaii are investigating teh discovery of a body in the wheel well of a United Airlines flight that arrived from Chicago. The body was found after the plane, a Boeing 787-10, landed at Kahului Airport. United Airlines is collaborating with law enforcement in the examination. The identity of the deceased, presumed to be a stowaway, and the circumstances of how they accessed the wheel well remain unknown. This method of stowing away is perilous; statistics indicate that approximately 77% of those who attempt to hide in an aircraft’s wheel well have died due to extreme temperatures and other risks. While many stowaways do not survive, there are instances where individuals have made it through their journey alive, highlighting both the dangers and occasional successes of such attempts.
Police launched an investigation after a body was discovered Tuesday in the wheel well of a plane at Kahului Airport in Maui, Hawaii.
The deceased individual was found after United Airlines flight 202 took off from Chicago International Airport and landed in Kahului, according to a report from Hawaii News Now.
Investigators found the body in the wheel well of a main landing gear.
The plane was a Boeing 787-10.
United Airlines said in a statement that the company is “working with law enforcement authorities on the investigation,” per Hawaii News Now.
“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,” the statement said.
Officials with the Maui Police Department are examining the incident, confirming in a statement to USA Today that staff members are “actively investigating the discovery of a deceased individual on an incoming flight from the mainland.”
Operations at Kahului Airport were not impacted by the discovery.
USA Today said that law enforcement has not revealed the identity of the stowaway and his motive for hiding on the aircraft as of Thursday.
Hiding in the wheel well of an airplane is a dangerous but common method of stowing away on a flight.
Roughly 77 percent of those who have tried to illegally hide on an airplane using that approach have died, according to data from the Federal Aviation Administration d by CNN.
Some stowaways are crushed as the landing gear retracts, since the space in that part of a plane can be smaller than a car trunk.
Others experience frostbite and hypothermia as the plane reaches higher altitudes. Temperatures can decline to 75 or 80 degrees below zero, impacting blood flow significantly.
While the person who attempted the journey to Maui lost his life, others have managed to survive hiding in airplanes.
One person was found alive in the undercarriage of an Algerian airline’s plane in Paris last year, while a man was discovered in the nose wheel of a cargo plane which arrived in Amsterdam from South Africa in 2022, according to USA Today.
Another man rode in the landing gear of an American Airlines flight in 2021 to Miami from Guatemala. He was hospitalized upon the plane’s arrival.
Maui also saw a 15-year-old boy survive a flight in 2014 which originated in San Jose and lasted more than five hours. That boy successfully hid in the wheel well.
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