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DUMB: Stowaway dies in wheel well of 747

Discussion in 'Aviation Chat' started by TheMayor, Feb 9, 2010.

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  1. TheMayor

    TheMayor Ten Time F1 World Champ
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    #1 TheMayor, Feb 9, 2010
    How can people be so dumb? Must be really horrible for the ground crew.


    TOKYO — A body was found inside a wheel well of a Delta Air Lines plane after it landed in Tokyo from New York, and Japanese authorities Monday were trying to identify the man.

    The body of the apparent stowaway was clad only in a long-sleeved, plaid shirt and jeans, police at Narita International Airport said.

    A mechanic found the body lying inside the landing gear compartment of the Boeing 777-200 during maintenance after Delta Flight 59 landed Sunday night, police official Zenjiro Watanabe said.

    "All we know is that he must have sneaked in just before departure, because it is impossible for him to enter the storage during flight," Watanabe said. Police are trying to identify the man.

    He had no visible injuries except frostbite and may have died of hypothermia, Watanabe said. The temperature in that part of the plane falls to about minus 58 degrees during the long flight.

    Police were investigating the case both as an accident and a possible crime, Watanabe said.
     
  2. 2NA

    2NA F1 World Champ
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    #2 2NA, Feb 9, 2010
    Nature weeding out the stupid.

    Severe cold, practically no oxygen at cruising altitude, what a miserable way to die.
     
  3. laudaman

    laudaman Formula 3

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    #3 laudaman, Feb 9, 2010
    I can understand either a really desperate(or really stupid!) person trying this on a quick flight, but a trans-Atlantic flight to another country? More than 10 hours stuck in a wheelwell? I cannot imagine what you would be like on takeoff. There are just so many things that can go wrong(lack of oxygen, temperature, and even the landing gear going up on you!). I have read a few stories of immigrants coming to America by this process. One of them was saved by the grace of a leak in a pipe which leaked warm air. And that was still survival by defect. Really makes you wonder..

    Chris
     
  4. Tcar

    Tcar F1 Rookie

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    #4 Tcar, Feb 9, 2010
    There are a number of pics of people that didn't make it even that far floating around.

    I've seen a couple videos of bodies falling out of the well at TO when the gear was retracted. No survivors.

    One of a body falling out at landing. Frozen virtually solid (8 hours at -50F).
     
  5. 1ual777

    1ual777 F1 Rookie

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    #5 1ual777, Feb 9, 2010
    I guess as we sit in our warm homes across the US after a large dinner, the thought of someone reaching for a better life and surroundings to climb into a plane and try to enter this country seems kind of foreign to us?
     
  6. Bob Parks

    Bob Parks F1 Veteran
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    #6 Bob Parks, Feb 9, 2010
    I can't think of this poor soul as being dumb. There are so many who have no understanding or education about the physics involved in what happens when an airplane reaches 40,000 feet and then stays there for 12 hours. The passengers inside the cabin are thoroughly protected from the deadly elements by an aluminum tube that has been heavily insulated, heated, and pressurized to almost sea level altitudes. That poor soul probably expired in a matter 30 minutes or less when the oxygen was depleted and the temperature reached -20 rather quickly. Desperation drives some to desperate measures, I guess.
     
  7. James_Woods

    James_Woods F1 World Champ

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    #7 James_Woods, Feb 10, 2010
    I wonder if he even had a way to know it was going all the way to Tokyo? Maybe he just wanted out of NYC and was rolling the dice it would come down in perhaps San Francisco or LA?

    And of course had no idea that he would either freeze or suffocate, as you say.
     

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