Authorities investigate after a body is found in the wheel well of a United Airlines plane that landed in Hawaii from Chicago. (Shutterstock)
- United Airlines and Maui police are investigating the discovery of a dead body in the aircraft's landing gear compartment.
- The wheel well area is only accessible from outside the plane, raising questions about how and when the person entered.
- Previous incidents of stowaways in landing gear compartments have resulted in both fatalities and rare survivals.
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A dead body was discovered in the wheel well of a United Airlines aircraft that landed in Hawaii after flying from Chicago on Tuesday afternoon, authorities said.
Flight 202 departed from Chicago O’Hare International Airport at 9:31 a.m. Tuesday and landed at Kahului Airport on Maui at 2:12 p.m., according to FlightAware, a company that tracks flight information.
After the landing, “a body was found in the wheel well of one of the main landing gears on a United aircraft,” United Airlines said in a statement Wednesday.
The Maui Police Department said the person, who had not been identified, was discovered dead. The department is investigating the death, said Alana K. Pico, a department spokesperson. The airline said it is working with law enforcement on the investigation.
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It was unclear how or when the person entered the wheel well, a compartment underneath the plane that stores the retractable landing gear. According to a United spokesperson, the area where the body was found is only accessible from outside the aircraft. The aircraft is a Boeing 787-10, the spokesperson said.
Low oxygen levels in wheel storage compartments and extreme temperatures as flights climb to cruising altitudes make surviving in the wheel wells or other areas of commercial aircrafts rare, the Federal Aviation Administration has previously said. The agency did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The police did not say Tuesday that the person who was found dead on Maui was a stowaway. Others have died over the years after being in the landing gear compartment.
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In 2021, a 26-year-old man survived a flight from Guatemala to Miami after hiding in the airplane’s landing gear compartment, officials said.
In 2019, the body of a man believed to have fallen from the landing gear compartment of a flight to Heathrow Airport from Nairobi, Kenya, landed in the backyard of a house in southwest London.
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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
By Alexandra E. Petri
c.2024 The New York Times Company
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