A dead body was found in the wheel well of a United Airlines airplane that landed Tuesday in Hawaii, triggering an investigation, the airline told the Daily Caller.
“Upon arrival at Kahului airport in Maui on Tuesday, a body was found in the wheel well of one of the main landing gears on a United aircraft,” United told the Daily Caller. “United is working with law enforcement authorities on the investigation.”
Flight 202, a Boeing 787-10 airplane, had flown in from Chicago. “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 airline told the Daily Caller.
The Maui Police Department (MPD) is investigating the death of the person, who was already deceased by the time they were located, MPD spokesperson Alana Pico told The New York Times.
The deceased person has not been officially identified as a stowaway, according to police. (RELATED: Judge Sentences 70-Year-Old Woman Dubbed The ‘Serial Stowaway’ After Years Of Sneaking Past Airport Security)
Kahului witnessed a similar incident April 2014 when a 15-and-a-half-year-old male stowaway survived a Hawaiian Airlines flight from San Jose, California, Maui Now reported.
Russian national and legal U.S. resident Svetlana Dali was accused of being a stowaway on a Delta Air Lines flight from New York in November. She allegedly hid herself in the airplane’s bathrooms. She was arrested and deported to the U.S. and appeared in a Brooklyn, New York court in December.
She subsequently tried to escape to Canada by bus Dec. 16 but was arrested, ABC 7 reported, citing police sources.
Svetlana Dali, the alleged Delta Airlines stowaway, was arrested for the second time this month, after a first arrest by the FBI on Dec. 4 for stowing away on a flight from the United States to France, police say. pic.twitter.com/NS9JiRRr3q
— ABC News Live (@ABCNewsLive) December 17, 2024
A 26-year-old man survived as a wheel well stowaway aboard an American Airlines flight from Guatemala to Miami in November 2021.
Stowaways risk grave dangers as they could fall off an airplane’s landing gear to their deaths or the landing gear could crush them upon retraction, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Stowaways could also die of heat from airplane engines or extreme cold and insufficient oxygen at high altitudes.
The FAA said eight out of every 10 stowaways die but there have been notable survivors — including a Cuban stowaway on a Havana–Madrid flight in 1969 and the 2014 Hawaiian Airlines stowaway incident.
An American was the first known stowaway, having boarded the first French flight over the North Atlantic, according to the FAA.
The Daily Caller contacted the Maui Police Department but did not hear back as of the time of publication.
This article was originally published at dailycaller.com
