Airliners-India.com

selecta · Member Joined: 24 Dec 2006 Posts: 813 Location: ORD

Body of Stowaway Found in Wheel Well of Jet That Landed at LAX

Monday , January 29, 2007

AP
source

LOS ANGELES — The body of a male stowaway was found in the wheel well of a British Airways jet at Los Angeles International Airport, officials said.

A pilot discovered the body of the young man in the front right wheel well of the 747-400 during a routine inspection shortly before it was to return to London on Sunday, airport spokeswoman Nancy Castles said.

The FBI determined the stowaway likely died in the wheel well, Castles said. Autopsy results won't be available until later this week. Authorities had not identified the victim late Sunday.

The aircraft, British Airways Flight 283, had arrived from London Heathrow Airport at 3:15 p.m. and was scheduled to depart at 5:20 p.m. The airline notified officials of the discovery just before 4:30 p.m., Castles said.

Investigators were trying to determine where the stowaway boarded the plane.

"These aircraft don't go on a fixed route," said Alan Proud, a spokesman for British Airways. "It would have been somewhere else in world before that. That's part of the investigation, to look at where the aircraft had been before."

On Jan. 12, the body of a young African man was discovered in the wheel well of a Delta plane that landed in Atlanta from Dakar, Senegal.

Authorities determined that the man hid in the plane in Senegal and was suffocated to death by the landing gear.
_________________

http://openflights.org/user/citrus

DELAPPROACH · Member Joined: 21 Dec 2006 Posts: 53

The aircraft was G-BNLB and had operated on the following routes in the past week.

22nd January 2007->LHR-CPT
23th January 2007 ->CPT-LHR
24th January 2007 ->LHR-SIN
25th January 2007 ->SIN-LHR
26th January 2007 ->LHR-HKG
27th January 2007 ->HKG-LHR
28th January 2007 ->LHR-LAX

Regards,
Mayank

HAWK21M · Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 11:45 am Post subject:

Sad Case.Most people are not aware of Retracting Landing Gears & Pressurisation Issues.

I've noticed birds in the MWW on a few occasions.Hopefully never a person ever.

regds
MEL
_________________
Think of the Brighter side !!!

iflytb20 · Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 3:44 pm Post subject:

hey MEL
we once found a dead pigeon inside the APU cowling...of an 737
it survived a passage through the inlet and ended up INTACT inside the cowling.

The problem with stowaways is that whenever they see an acft on the grd, the see the gear down. hence they fatally presume dat the gear will remain down only, and that there wud be plenty of space inside the wheel well Crying or Very sad

HAWK21M · Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 3:50 pm Post subject:

Interesting.
Very common for the Rudder hinge Balanceweight area on the B737 to have Birds if its not flown for a few days.
regds
MEL
_________________
Think of the Brighter side !!!

iflytb20 · Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 4:01 pm Post subject:

HAWK21M · Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 1:07 pm Post subject:

For Aircraft Engines.Vultures are Bad FOD Smile

regds
MEL
_________________
Think of the Brighter side !!!

HAWK21M · Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 1:09 pm Post subject:

Vultures are Bd FOD for Engines Smile

regds
MEL
_________________
Think of the Brighter side !!!