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Aircraft Stowaways

A man remains in a critical condition in hospital after surviving a 10-hour flight by clinging to the undercarriage of a British Airways flight from which another stowaway is feared to have plunged to his death.

The survivor was found unconscious in the undercarriage of the plane on Thursday morning having endured freezing temperatures over the 8,000 miles (12,875km) flight from Johannesburg to London.

The body of the dead man was discovered an hour later on the roof of a west London office building. It is not clear if he was killed in the fall; flight data reveals the plane would have been at an altitude of around 1,400ft (427m) when it passed over the area.

Police say they believe they know the survivor’s identity and that he is 24 years old, but are awaiting confirmation.

Scotland Yard said officers were looking into whether there was a connection between the survivor and the dead man, who was found under the busy flight path of planes coming into Heathrow over the Richmond area. ...

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...-to-death-plane-london-shop-heathrow-richmond
 
It was supposed to be a routine refueling stop in Zimbabwe by an American-owned cargo plane, traveling to South Africa from Germany. Then airport officials noticed blood spattered on the fuselage and found a corpse and a small fortune in South African cash inside.

The discovery on Sunday led the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe to impound the aircraft, an unmarked chartered MD11 freighter owned by Western Global Airlines, a well-established international cargo carrier based in Estero, Fla. As of Monday, the aircraft remained on the tarmac at the airport in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital, and officials said they were still investigating.

The identity of the corpse was not clear. Western Global Airlines, which confirmed on Monday that it owned the plane, said in a statement that the corpse was suspected to have been a stowaway “who may have entered the airplane during a previous stop.” ...

The accounts speculated that the person found dead, who had apparently sneaked into the landing gear opening, was crushed when the gear retracted after takeoff. ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/16/w...corpse-and-cash-is-impounded-in-zimbabwe.html
 
Two stowaways on US-bound flight from Ecuador die after falling from aircraft
Two men thought to have been stowaways on a US-bound flight from Ecuador have died after they fell from the aircraft, it has been reported.

The Jose Joaquin de Olmedo airport in Guayaquil was closed for an hour and a half as their bodies were removed from the runway.

Employees at the airport noticed three objects falling from the plane and officials believe the pair either fainted or were ejected. ...

“What is known is that the plane came from Peru. From the characteristics of the citizens, they may come from Peru, and from here they would go to the United States, to New York”, he added.

The third item that was spotted falling from the plane was a suitcase which contained clothes and approximately $20 (£14). ...
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SOURCE: https://www.yahoo.com/news/two-stowaways-us-bound-flight-214626542.html
 
When I read the bit about the suitcase I just felt incredibly sad.. They had so little then lost their lives as well. I know it was foolish but they must have been desperate.
 
Iris said:
When I read the bit about the suitcase I just felt incredibly sad.. They had so little then lost their lives as well. I know it was foolish but they must have been desperate.
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:(
 
What would kill you first: the -50c temperature, or the very thin atmosphere at 11,000 metres?
Obviously, those who tried to stow away by jumping onto the landing gear also risk being crushed when the wheels are retracted.
 
blessmycottonsocks said:
What would kill you first: the -50c temperature, or the very thin atmosphere at 11,000 metres?
Obviously, those who tried to stow away by jumping onto the landing gear also risk being crushed when the wheels are retracted.
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The thin atmosphere would render a stowaway unconscious, so they couldn't hang on if the landing gear was lowered.
 
Mythopoeika said:
The thin atmosphere would render a stowaway unconscious, so they couldn't hang on if the landing gear was lowered.
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Yes. These type of incidents have happened before, including a case where a man fell out near London.
 
Several cases of people's pet dogs being mistakenly placed in the unpressurised part of the aircraft's hold and dying.
Also dogs with respiratory issues at the best of times (pugs and bulldogs etc.) are apparently very sensitive to pressure fluctuations and have died even when carried in a pressurised hold.
 
Re the comment from Iris, it is so sad to read some of the comments from U.S. people underneath like "another less immigrant to worry about". As stated, a sad end to a sad life pursuing desperate measures.
 
Spudrick68 said:
Re the comment from Iris, it is so sad to read some of the comments from U.S. people underneath like "another less immigrant to worry about". As stated, a sad end to a sad life pursuing desperate measures.
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Yeah...makes you proud to be an American doesn’t it?
 
Not every american of course, but since the story was from a U.S. site the comments appear to be from Americans and of course the same idiots exist in every country.
 
A drunken baggage handler becomes an inadvertent stowaway ...

Drunk baggage handler falls asleep in hold, flies to Chicago
Police say a baggage handler told them he was drunk when he fell asleep in a cargo hold and flew from Kansas City to Chicago.

American Airlines says the Piedmont Airlines employee was working ... when the Boeing 737 left Kansas City International Airport with the handler in a heated and pressurized cargo hold.

Chicago Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi says he was found when the flight landed about an hour later at Chicago’s O’Hare airport. The spokesman says the handler told police he was intoxicated and had fallen asleep.

No charges were filed, and he was sent back to Kansas City. ...
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SOURCE: https://www.apnews.com/5e4957194dad460886166c13ca6dff0e
 
A Fortean-type fall of a man onto a UK garden. He was pretty clearly an airline stowaway.
Stowaway falls into a south London garden from Kenya Airways plane

A man is believed to have dropped to his death from a plane flying over London, after his body was discovered in a residential garden on Sunday.

The man appeared to have been a stowaway, who fell from the landing gear compartment of a Kenya Airways plane on approach to Heathrow airport, London's Metropolitan Police said in a statement on Monday.

"Police were called at 15:39hrs (10:39 ET) on Sunday, 30 June to a residential address in Offerton Road, Clapham after a body was discovered in a garden," the police statement read.

"Officers attended with the London Ambulance Service. The body of a person, believed to be a man (age unknown) was found. A post-mortem examination will be carried out in due course. Police are working to establish the man's identity," it continued.

A bag, water and some food were discovered in the landing gear compartment once the place touched down at Heathrow, the police said. ...
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SOURCE: https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/01/uk/kenya-airways-airplane-death-intl/index.html
 
EnolaGaia said:
A Fortean-type fall of a man onto a UK garden. He was pretty clearly an airline stowaway.


SOURCE: https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/01/uk/kenya-airways-airplane-death-intl/index.html
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Presumably did the chap fall out when the landing gear opened?

What that article doesn't mention, is the poor sunbather who almost got squashed by the stowaway: :wide:
A neighbour said the man fell a metre away from a resident who had been sunbathing in the garden.
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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-48830212

(... assuming, that is, that this part of the story is true. We have a neighbour - does not want to be named - etc. etc.)
 
EnolaGaia said:
Yes - that's the usual way it happens. In this case the stowaway was already dead. News reports describe his body as being "an ice block."
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I'm not sure which is worse- slowly(?) blacking out due to lack of oxygen and dying in a coma, or suddenly realising you're dropping out of the sky and are probably going to die on impact (that's if you have time to think).
 
I don't recall seeing any stories of airline stowaways this young before ...
'Child stowaway' found dead in plane's undercarriage in Paris

The body of a child aged about 10 has been found in the undercarriage of a plane that had arrived in Paris from Abidjan, sources close to the investigation have told French media.

Air France confirmed that "the lifeless body of a stowaway" was discovered at Charles de Gaulle Airport early in the morning.

The body was found in the well of the landing gear of the aircraft that flew in from Ivory Coast, it said.
An investigation is under way.

"The airline expresses their condolences and deplores this human tragedy," Air France said in a tweet, without specifying the age of person found.

The National Gendarmerie confirmed to the BBC that the body discovered at 06:40 local time (05:40 GMT) was of "African origin".

The Air France Boeing 777 had taken off from Abidjan, Ivory Coast's main city, on Tuesday evening. ...
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FULL STORY: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-51032993
 
I recall this famous photograph taken on February 24 1970 of 14 year old stowaway Keith Sapsford as he falls to his death over Mascot (a suburb of Sydney) from the wheel of a JAL Douglas DC-8 flight departing Sydney's Charles Kingsford Smith airport for Tokyo. Incredibly, the moment was captured accidentally by an amateur photographer and not discovered until a week later when the film was developed.

jal.jpg


The story of this tragic event.
 
Go Granny Go!

A woman with a history of stowing away on airliners has been arrested for attempting to sneak on to a flight at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, authorities said.

The arrest of Marilyn Hartman, 69, came two weeks after a judge rejected a plea deal that would have given her probation for a previous attempt to stow away on a flight. She is being held on a trespassing charge. Hartman allegedly left the facility where she had been staying while on electronic monitoring. The device allowed Cook County sheriff’s deputies to track her as she headed for O’Hare. Officers activated an alarm on the device as she neared Terminal 1, where she was arrested.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/world/arid-40245959.html
 
Serial stowaway Marilyn Hartman's recent interview with a local TV station is available online now. She details the free airline trips she's taken and explains her most successful tactic for getting onto a plane without a ticket.

Serial Stowaway Marilyn Hartman Explains How She Repeatedly Got Past Airport Security; ‘The Story Is Crazy’
FULL STORY: https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2021/0...got-past-airport-security-the-story-is-crazy/
 
Here's an atypical case - a stowaway inside an airliner's landing gear compartment who survived.
A stowaway was found in the landing gear of a plane at the Miami airport, authorities say

Authorities discovered an apparent stowaway Saturday in the landing gear of a flight from Guatemala at the Miami International Airport ...

US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at the airport apprehended a 26-year-old man who "attempted to evade detection in the landing gear compartment of an aircraft "...

The flight was American Airlines #1182 from Guatemala City ...

American Airlines said in a statement the flight was met by law enforcement "due to a security issue," after landing at 10:06 a.m. ...

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue confirmed to CNN they transported the man to a local hospital for medical assessment.

In a video posted on Instagram by the account @onlyindade, a person is seen dazed, standing in the shadow of an airplane wing with airport personnel in reflective vests, before he appears to slightly lose his balance and sits on the ground.

In another video posted by the same account, law enforcement and emergency medical services are seen around the man as he is given water and other aid. ...
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FULL STORY (With Photos): https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/27/us/miami-airport-stowaway/index.html
 
EnolaGaia said:
A drunken baggage handler becomes an inadvertent stowaway ...
Click to expand...

It's happened again, but this time the baggage handler didn't claim to be drunk.
Airline worker falls asleep in cargo hold before take-off and is only discovered when plane arrives in UAE

A baggage loader from the Mumbai airport fell asleep in the cargo hold of an Indigo Airlines Abu Dhabi-bound flight and was discovered only after the aircraft landed on Sunday.

The incident took place on Airbus A320 aircraft that operated as flight 6E 1835 and took off after 2.30am IST on Sunday, safety regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said.

The worker, after loading bags into the aircraft, allegedly fell asleep behind the baggage section.

“Post loading of baggage in aircraft, one of the loader engaged on the aircraft relaxed in baggage compartment 1 and fell asleep behind the baggage. The cargo door was closed after the hold staff marked the headcount” ...

The airlines learnt of the worker’s presence only about two hours after take-off, when the flight landed in the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). ...

Local authorities in Abu Dhabi conducted a medical examination of the worker, and on finding him stable, sent him back to Mumbai as a passenger on the same aircraft. ...
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FULL STORY: https://www.independent.co.uk/asia/india/indigo-airline-worker-cargo-compartment-b1976314.html
 
The best way to stowaway!

A gentleman from Russia enjoyed himself on a flight last month from Copenhagen to Los Angeles, eating meals and chatting with fellow passengers as well as the crew — but how he got on the plane is a mystery.

In fact, economist Sergey Vladimirovich Ochigava somehow boarded the Scandinavian Airlines flight allegedly without a passport, visa, or even a plane ticket, and is now considered a "stowaway," even though he was in plain sight for the entire flight.

From KTLA:

Sergey Vladimirovich Ochigava faces a charge of being a stowaway on an aircraft related to a Nov. 4 flight, but according to a report by Jason Koebler published jointly by 404 Media and Court Watch, he "was not a stowaway in the traditional sense."

"[Ochigava] seemingly interacted with flight crew, ate two meals on the plane, spoke to other passengers on the flight, and, at one point 'attempted to eat the chocolate that belonged to members of the cabin crew,' Koebler wrote. "The affidavit states that 'most' of the crew noticed him on the plane, and said he was sitting in a few different seats, but that nothing else seemed amiss." …

Ochigava was not on the flight's manifest, nor was he on the passenger list of any other international flight. …

https://boingboing.net/2023/12/11/s...mark-to-lax-in-plain-sight-but-no-ticket.html
 
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