Body discovered in wheel well of United plane at Maui airport in Hawaii
CBSDEC 24 2024
Dead Body Found in United Airlines Plane Wheel Well in Hawaii
Above: A United Airlines plane takes off at Chicago O'Hare International Airport in Chicago on Jan. 28, 2019. Image copyright: Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
The Facts
A deceased person was discovered in the landing gear compartment — also known as the wheel well — of a United Airlines Boeing 787-10 aircraft after it landed at Kahului Airport in Maui on Christmas Eve.
United Airlines Flight 202 departed from Chicago O'Hare International Airport at 9:31 am local time and landed in Maui at 2:12 pm local time, following a previous flight from Sao Paulo, Brazil to Chicago.
Investigators have not yet determined how or when the deceased accessed the wheel well area, which is only accessible from outside the aircraft. Temperatures outside a plane can drop to 75 to 80 degrees below zero during flight, exposing stowaways to the risk of frostbite and hypothermia.
The Spin
Narrative A
This incident highlights serious security vulnerabilities at airports, as someone managed not only to breach the airport, but to access a restricted area of an aircraft without detection, exposing potentially critical safety gaps in the system.
Narrative B
This tragic event underscores the desperate measures some individuals will take to reach other countries, resulting in fatal consequences due to the extreme conditions in aircraft wheel wells, including lack of oxygen and freezing temperatures. This isn't just about problems in the aviation industry, but the ongoing loss of life taking place amid global instability and conflict.
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