Body Found In Landing Gear

[Dave Nelson]

!!Chilling!!

Man's Body Found In Landing Gear Of US Flight
9:13am UK, Monday February 08, 2010


A man's body has been found in the landing gear of an airliner that had flown from New York to Tokyo.

Japanese authorities say the man, who was of dark complexion and dressed only in blue jeans and a long-sleeved shirt, was carrying no passport or personal belongings.

A mechanic found the body under the Delta Airlines Boeing 777, after Flight 59 landed at Tokyo's Narita International airport, a Chiba prefecture police spokesman said.

After the passengers disembarked, the aircraft was towed to a freight area. The maintenance worker found the man inside the door of the landing gear storage compartment.

There were no external injuries on the man's body, but there were traces of frostbite believed to have occurred while the plane was airborne.

"Doctors say he probably froze to death and that he suffered a shortage of oxygen at an altitude of more than 30,000ft," said Narita airport police spokesman Yoshimi Ichihara.

"We found no passport, no bag and no personal belongings. If he carried any luggage, it must have all dropped out when the airplane opened the landing gear bay above the ocean before it landed."

There is enough space for a person to hide in the main landing gear housing compartment, but the area is not pressurised with the cabin of the aircraft.

Consequently there have been several cases in which stowaways have hidden in the housing compartment, but died due to lack of breathable air and the freezing temperatures.

Japanese authorities are seeking help from US police to identify the man.

[Geoff Becks]

Its not unheard of to get calls to the police from residents on the flight path into the major london airports due to frozen bodies falling into their back gardens from aircraft lowering the landing gear on final,  where stowaways have suffered the same fate....!

[Bruce Hamilton]

People trying to stow away don't realize those hidden compartments aren't heated or pressurized.  At 20,000 feet, that secret space you found to hide in is 50 degrees below zero.  Imagine what it is at 35,000.