Dead Body Found in United Airlines Plane Wheel Well in Hawaii
A deceased person was discovered in the landing gear compartment — also known as the wheel well — of a United Airlines Boeing 787-10 aircraft after it landed at Kahului Airport in Maui on Christmas Eve.
Facts
- A deceased person was discovered in the landing gear compartment — also known as the wheel well — of a United Airlines Boeing 787-10 aircraft after it landed at Kahului Airport in Maui on Christmas Eve.[1][2]
- United Airlines Flight 202 departed from Chicago O'Hare International Airport at 9:31 am local time and landed in Maui at 2:12 pm local time, following a previous flight from Sao Paulo, Brazil to Chicago.[3][4]
- Investigators have not yet determined how or when the deceased accessed the wheel well area, which is only accessible from outside the aircraft. Temperatures outside a plane can drop to 75 to 80 degrees below zero during flight, exposing stowaways to the risk of frostbite and hypothermia.[5][6]
- The Federal Aviation Administration has previously stated that low oxygen levels and extreme temperatures in wheel storage compartments make survival extremely rare, with over 77% of attempted stowaways perishing during flight.[6]
- The Maui Police Department is actively investigating the incident, though the deceased individual's identity has not been released.[7][8]
- The discovery occurred during one of the busiest holiday travel periods, with 54M passengers expected to fly between Dec. 19 and Jan. 6.[7]
Sources: [1]BBC News, [2]The New York Times, [3]CBS, [4]Metro, [5]DW, [6]CNN, [7]People and [8]USA Today.
Narratives
- Narrative A, as provided by BBC News and The New York Times. This incident highlights serious security vulnerabilities at airports, as someone managed not only to breach the airport, but to access a restricted area of an aircraft without detection, exposing potentially critical safety gaps in the system.
- Narrative B, as provided by DW and CNN. This tragic event underscores the desperate measures some individuals will take to reach other countries, resulting in fatal consequences due to the extreme conditions in aircraft wheel wells, including lack of oxygen and freezing temperatures. This isn't just about problems in the aviation industry, but the ongoing loss of life taking place amid global instability and conflict.
