Stowaway found dead inside airplane landing gear after trans-Atlantic journey

A body has been found inside the landing gear of an American Airlines plane shortly after it landed from Europe.

The plane, which landed at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport in North Carolina on Sunday morning, had just arrived from an unknown location in Europe around 9am.

When workers were conducting routine checks on the aircraft, they found the body.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police pronounced the unidentified person dead at the scene.

An investigation has been launched into the death, and anyone with information has been asked to contact local police.

The grisly discovery comes after two teenage stowaways were found dead in the wheel well of a JetBlue flight in January.

Staff were conducting a maintenance inspection after it landed at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport when they found the bodies of Jamaican teens Jeik Aniluz Lusi, 18, and Elvis Borques Castillo, 16.

It’s still unclear how they got into the wheel well, or when – the plane had travelled between Jamaica and multiple other locations in the days prior to the discovery of their bodies.

In December, a body was found in the wheel well of United Airlines Flight 202, which travelled from Chicago to Maui’s Kahului Airport.

Stowaways’ most used method is to hide in wheel wells, and more than 77% of individuals who have tried to catch an illegal ride have died, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

They can get crushed by landing gear when it retracts, and they can get frostbite, hypothermia and experience low oxygen levels as planes climb to high altitudes.

In 2023, a man’s body was discovered in the undercarriage of a Tui flight that left from The Gambia’s capital.

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