A body was found in the wheel well of United Airlines Flight 202, which left Chicago for Hawaii on Dec. 24, the airline said.

Summary

A body was found in the wheel well of a United Airlines Boeing 787-10 upon its arrival in Maui from Chicago’s O’Hare Airport on Dec. 24.

The deceased person’s identity and how they accessed the wheel well, which is only reachable from outside the plane, remain unknown.

The aircraft had previously flown from Sao Paulo to Chicago before continuing to Maui.

United Airlines and Maui Police are investigating the incident. No further details have been released as the story develops.

  • chaosCruiser@futurology.todayEnglish
    69·
    2 days ago

    These things happen from time to time. You must be extremely desperate or ignorant to try pulling off a stunt like that. These planes usually fly high enough for the air pressure to drop to lethal levels. If you somehow don’t suffocate, the freezing temperature will surely get you sooner or later. Either way, it’s pretty much a death sentence.

    • stoy
      19·
      2 days ago

      Not only that he could have been crushed as the landing gear was retracted on take off.

      Plane makers will not take stow aways into account when designing the landing gear compartment…

  • Wahots@pawb.social
    333·
    2 days ago

    You need 5-6 hours of oxygen (from the West Coast) and insanely good winter gear to even attempt this. It’s extremely dangerous too, since you also could potentially fall out on either end of the journey. Not to mention cold or asphyxiation hazards from rapidly climbing to Everest altitudes.

    Just buy a ticket.

    • MTK@lemmy.world
      20·
      2 days ago

      The idea that you imagine that these people are trying to save money and just decided to not buy a ticket is both hilarious and sadly possible

      • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        41·
        1 day ago

        I think the point is that, if they can afford the equipment that would need to even possibly survive, then they can afford to just buy a ticket.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
      521·
      2 days ago

      I’m guessing if whoever it is could have afforded to buy a ticket, they wouldn’t have climbed into the wheel well.

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
      10·
      2 days ago

      I am morbidly curious what gets someone first in this situation:

      • crushed?
      • lack of oxygen?
      • extreme cold?
      • and even if they survived, would they survive arrival?
      • mercphilby@discuss.online
        15·
        2 days ago

        Oxygen. At 10,000 feet the oxygen becomes an issue. A plane traveling to Hawaii would typically fly between 30k and 45k feet. If there is any consolation, that person would’ve passed out and died relatively peacefully before they got cold enough. And they were probably dead within 20 minutes of takeoff.

        You can avoid being crushed. And if they are sending the cause of death is unknown at the moment, they were probably not bleeding out.

        Yes the cold will be very bad but if you prepared well enough. People survive in all kinds of cold weather. But at 30k feet it can get -50f… so, that better be a warm ass jacket or you would indeed freeze solid. Hypothermia and frostbite are almost a guarantee. And since they can’t move around to keep their body temp up, they would need to have some kind of heater…. I’m gonna say this probably wasn’t something they considered.

    • Professorozone@lemmy.world
      102·
      2 days ago

      But he managed to get to Hawaii without paying. He’ll probably avoid paying for a funeral too. Not sure about the value for money. Guess it depends on your outlook. He won’t have to live under the Trump administration anymore either. I’m starting to see some upsides here. Let’s think about this.