An unidentified stowaway was found dead in the landing gear of an American Airlines plane at Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina on September 28. The aircraft had arrived from Europe, and the body was found by maintenance personnel during routine inspection. Charlotte-Mecklenburg police confirmed that the individual was pronounced dead at the scene. The person’s identity has not yet been released.
Landing gear compartments are extremely dangerous due to low oxygen and freezing temperatures. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) says over 76% of stowaway attempts end in death. In January, two teens were found dead in the landing gear of a JetBlue plane in Florida.
While air travel is generally safe, this fatal event serves as a sobering reminder of the extreme risks some individuals take and the bizarre events that have happened on commercial flights.
Click on and find out some of the other strange and unsettling things that have happened on airplanes.