Ugh, this is just beyond sad…
Body discovered in American 777 during maintenance
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) is investigating a tragic discovery that was made this morning (Sunday, September 28, 2025). Shortly before 9AM, detectives with the CMPD’s homicide unit were called to American Airlines’ maintenance hangar at Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT).
While conducting routine maintenance on an American aircraft, mechanics discovered a stowaway in the landing gear, who was pronounced deceased on scene. An investigation is now being conducted into what happened, and to collect physical evidence.
Details are limited beyond that as of now, though JonNYC reports that the plane in question was N794AA, a 24-year-old Boeing 777-200ER. The plane had arrived from Frankfurt (FRA) at 1:39PM on Friday, September 26, 2025, meaning that the plane had been on the ground for close to two days at the time of the discovery.
The stowaway was likely coming from San Salvador
Unfortunately we see attempted stowaways on aircraft with an alarming frequency, typically when people are looking to escape their country for another. What’s awful is the level of desperation needed to engage in something like this.
Per statistics, stowaways on commercial aircraft don’t survive the journey a vast majority of the time. In addition to the risk of being crushed by the gear or falling out during takeoff, there’s also the lack of oxygen and the incredibly cold temperatures, which will make people lose consciousness pretty quickly, once the plane reaches cruising altitude. People don’t accidentally become stowaways on airplanes. Instead, these are typically people in very desperate situations.
With that in mind, I couldn’t help but look at this plane’s history, to see if there was something unusual… and there was. Generally speaking, you don’t see stowaways get on aircraft in the European Union. So I wondered, did the plane come from another country recently, where there are higher odds of someone trying to make an escape this way?
The trip prior to the Frankfurt one was to Madrid (MAD), another city where you wouldn’t expect to see stowaways. But then there’s something very interesting before that.
On September 22, 2025, the plane was ferried from San Salvador (SAL) to Dallas (DFW). American outsources some aircraft maintenance to Aeroman, a large maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) facility at the airport. The plane was in San Salvador for around six weeks.
So while I can’t make any guarantees, I think it’s highly likely that the stowaway may have been on that flight on September 22, though the body was only discovered six days later. How awful… may the deceased rest in peace…
Bottom line
This morning, a body was discovered in the landing gear of an American Boeing 777, during route maintenance at Charlotte Airport. The aircraft had landed two days earlier from Frankfurt. However, typically stowaways aren’t coming from the European Union, and this plane had just left maintenance in San Salvador less than a week earlier, and it’s highly likely that’s where the stowaway got on the plane.
