An unidentified stowaway was found dead Sunday around 9 a.m. local time at Charlotte Douglas International Airport (airport terminal pictured May 2025 in Newark, N.J.) in the landing gear area of an American Airlines, according to local police. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo
A stowaway was found dead on a American Airline inflight from Europe as it landed in North Carolina.
On Sunday, an unidentified person was found dead around 9 a.m. local time at Charlotte Douglas International Airport in the landing gear area of an American Airlines plane as crew performed routine maintenance, according to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.
American Airlines said officials were “working with law enforcement on its investigation.”
According to authorities, the stowaway was declared dead on scene.
“We are deeply saddened by this news and will support the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department’s investigation as needed,” stated airport officials in North Carolina.
They added that airport operations continued “as normal.”
Around 76% of airplane stowaway incidents end in death, according to data by the Federal Aviation Administration.
An aviation expert said jumping on as a stowaway on a commercial jet almost always ends fatal due to conditions.
“A human body exposed for many hours to temperatures as low as minus 60 degrees Fahrenheit courts extensive frostbite and loss of limbs, even if the utter lack of oxygen at 35,000 feet or more doesn’t result in brain death,” aviation analyst John Nance told ABC News.
A 25-year-old stowaway was found frozen to death in 2003 on an American Airline jet at New York’s Kennedy Airport in the plane wheel on Christmas Eve as maintenance workers went to inspect.
However, in early 2022 another unidentified stowaway was found alive after they spent 11 hours on a flight from South Africa to Amsterdam in the Netherlands in the nose wheel of a cargo 747 jet plane.
