One Dead, One Just Embarrassed

It's been a bad week for stowaways. While the macabre death of an apparent stowaway in the wheel well of a South African Airbus 340 has garnered many headlines (including here), another stowaway left New York as an "unmanifested passenger" on a Spirit Air flight to Detroit last Thursday.

The thing is, he wasn't trying to stow away, but the baggage handler for contractor Service Air fell asleep in an empty cargo bin on board the plane.

Every cargo bin is supposed to be checked before takeoff. Maybe this one wasn't, or maybe that's exactly what the worker was doing when overtaken by slumber. Either way, the authorities are not amused in the way that only the authorities can be.

The baggage handler and managers from Spirit and Service Air now have a lot of 'splaining to do, to the Port Authority police and the TSA.

It's not the first time this year for either type of stowaway; a few months ago a baggage handler was inside the bay of a jetliner when the door closed behind him. He was quite a surprise for the handlers on the other end, but none the worse for the cold journey (the baggage compartment on most jets is pressurized but not heated). The airline flew him back to his starting point -- this time, in a seat in the cabin. Unfortunately, a wheel-well stowaway ended, as is all too common, tragically. In May a Chinese boy fell to his death from an airplane taking off in Dunhuang.

People have attempted to stow away in aircraft wheel wells for at least 40 years -- We've been reading about them that long, anyway. Although someone who doesn't quite fit the profile tries it for sport occasionally, most such attempts begin where people are poor and desperate.

Many of them may not understand that normal airline cruising altitudes are higher than the fabled "Death Zone" of Everest, which is only attempted by the fittest and bravest mountaineers (and then, most of them are on oxygen). At 8000 meters (26,000 feet) and above, no human can acclimatize to the ambient pressure (and low partial pressure of oxygen); unconsciousness and death will result in time. The amount of time depends on the condition of the individual.

Stowaway History

A search through the Aero-News archives for keyword "stowaway" shows that there are a number of strategies, ranging from the inspired to the suicidal, with frequent excursions into the Land of Just Plain Weird:

* In November, 2004, Canadian Neil Melly couldn't fly to Australia because his credit card was overdrawn. He caught the next day's flight, or tried to; the Qantas jet stopped when the crew learned that somebody was in the wheelwell. When ground workers came to pull Melly out, they didn't grab him by his clothing, for the simple reason that he wasn't wearing any. Yep, he was going to take a 15+ hour nonstop at 30,000 feet and 40 degrees below zero wearing nothing but a facial expression. I know Canadians pride themselves on standing up to cold winters, but this is ridiculous.

* In August, 2004, a Cuban woman DHL'd herself to Miami in a crate.

* In March, 2004, a wheel well rider who survived a flight from the Dominican Republic to Miami and miraculously survived, wound up getting no benefit for the terrible risk he took: he was deported back home.

* On Christmas Day, 2003, American Airlines workers found a very deceased stowaway in the wheel wells of an Airbus A300. He may have been dead for several days.

* In September, 2003, Charles McKinley (mugshot) is one of the most well-known stowaways. As a prank, he says, he UPSed himself from his workplace in Newark to his parents' home in Dallas. After traveling cross-country on freight carriers (TSA rules prevented the package he was in from traveling on passenger flights... and nobody even gave him a little foil bag of pretzels).  

Unfortunately for McKinley, he had outstanding warrants in Texas, and he was immediately arrested. He was also subsequently charged as a stowaway (a Federal misdemeanor). In February, 2004, he was sentenced to house arrest and a fine.

* In January, 2003, a disoriented man simply climbed aboard an ATA jet in Tampa and took a seat. An alert mechanic tipped police and he was removed.

* Also in January, 2003, two unidentified persons fell to their doom from an Air France 777 on approach to Shanghai. 

* In April, 2002, the wheel well of a DAS Air Cargo jet at London Heathrow yielded a cold-soaked, frozen body, an apparent stowaway from Africa.

In January, 2000, Rawson Watson stowed away behind the insulation in a British Airways 767. He wasn't just looking to stowaway; he stole currency from a shipment from Spain to Britain, and packed himself and his stolen goods into a case, which unfortunately broke open. At least he went to prison knowing he could bear being locked up in small places.

FMI: www.tsa.gov