A stowaway has been found dead in the landing gear of an American Airlines plane that had landed in 
Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) from Europe. The aircraft was undergoing maintenance shortly after its arrival when the body was discovered by airline employees.
Police in Charlotte have opened a homicide investigation into the death. Details on the stowaway have not been made public at this stage.
Stowaway Body Found In American Airlines Landing Gear
According to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD), the stowaway’s body was found by technicians as the aircraft underwent a routine maintenance inspection in a hangar on Sunday morning. The remains were discovered in the landing gear compartment, and the stowaway was pronounced dead at the scene by CMPB Airport Division officers.
Details on the incident are scarce, so it is not clear which European airport the flight originated from. American serves a total of six destinations in Europe out of Charlotte Douglas – Dublin (DUB), Frankfurt (FRA), London Heathrow (LHR), Madrid (MAD), Munich (MUC), and Rome (FCO). But CLT is also a key American gateway to the Caribbean and Latin America, which are regions at heightened risk of stowaway attempts.
It also isn’t known if the stowaway came from Europe or remained in the wheel well undiscovered from a previous flight, which has happened before. Most stowaways will not survive the journey due to extreme cold and oxygen deprivation, particularly on longer flights like those from other continents. In a statement, the CMPB said,
“On Sunday, September 28, shortly after 9 a.m., while performing maintenance on an American Airlines plane that had recently arrived from Europe, a stowaway was located in the landing gear. The subject was pronounced deceased on scene by CMPD’s Airport Division officers.”
Stowaway Survival Odds
Although the fatality rate of stowing away on an aircraft is exceedingly high, many individuals still try each year. The most common method is via the aircraft’s landing gear, but this exposes individuals to extreme conditions when the flight gains altitude, causing loss of consciousness and hypothermia.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration ( FAA), less than one in four stowaways will survive their journey, with the odds of survival going down depending on flight duration. Surviving a long-haul flight in the wheel well may be close to impossible, but there are several documented cases of survival on shorter flights.
For example, a 13-year-old Afghan boy recently snuck onto a two-hour flight to Delhi and survived, but was caught by airport authorities and sent back home on another flight the same day. But this was a lucky escape for the young stowaway, as most cases sadly end in death.
Recent Attempts In The US
While illegal entry to the US typically happens over land borders, some attempt to do it by air, often ending in tragedy. In January, two bodies were found in the landing gear of a JetBlue aircraft during a routine maintenance inspection in Fort Lauderdale.
Just a month before that, a body was found in the landing gear of a United Airlines Boeing 787 Dreamliner after a domestic flight from Chicago to Maui, although experts believe the stowaway jumped on the plane in São Paulo on a previous flight. In November 2021, a stowaway survived an American Airlines flight from Guatemala to Miami — which takes around two hours and 30 minutes — but was immediately detained by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers after he was discovered.
Passengers who sneak into the cabin without a boarding pass also count as stowaways, and there have been recent incidents in the US where this has happened. In November, a 57-year-old Russian woman boarded a Delta Air Lines flight from New York JFK to Paris without a boarding pass or valid travel documents, hiding in the lavatory during the flight.
