IT’S STOW GOING TO MIAMI
Survives in landing gear from Guatemala
A stowaway hid inside the wheel well of an American Airlines flight from Guatemala for nearly three hours before arriving at Miami International Airport on Saturday, officials said.
The unidentified 26-year-old man was apprehended by US Customs and Border Protection before he was transported to a hospital for treatment, officials told the Miami Herald.
The man “attempted to evade detection in the landing gear compartment of an aircraft arriving from Guatemala,” according to the agency.
Video obtained by Miami-area Instagram account @OnlyinDade shows employees wearing American Airlines vests helping the disheveled unsanctioned passenger sit down and offering him water.
The video also shows the tiny mechanical compartment where the man, wearing jeans, a jacket and boots, had hid himself.
“Poor man. He just got here. Let him sit. Water! Bring water for him,” a person says in Spanish in the clip. “Are you OK? How do you feel?”
“Yeah, he survived. He survived,” one of the workers says in English while talking on a cellphone.
CBP said the incident “remains under investigation.”
“Persons are taking extreme risks when they try to conceal themselves in confined spaces such as an aircraft,” the agency said in a statement.
The stowaway, who was reportedly taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, was airborne for roughly 2 hours and 50 minutes on Flight 1182 from Guatemala City to Miami, hidden in a landing-gear compartment of the plane, Miami-Dade Aviation Department Communications Director Greg Chin told the Herald.
The flight landed at just after 10 a.m. on Saturday.
The flight was “met by law enforcement due to a security issue,” American Airlines said in an initial statement.
“We are working with law enforcement in their investigation,” the airline said.
Miami-Dade Police said they would be assisting CBP in its investigation.
It was unclear how the man survived the flight or gained entry to the landing-gear compartment.
At the average cruising altitude for a commercial flight — between 30,000 and 40,000 feet — temperature ranges from minus 40 to minus 70 degrees, according to Encyclopedia Britannica.
Security consultant Luis Chinchilla told Guatemalan newspaper La Hora that the spot where the man had stashed himself may have had “tolerable air.”
“I imagine that all that part where the landing gear goes does not have the same pressurization as the area where the passengers go,” he said in Spanish.
“On airplanes, for example, the luggage area has certain conditions. However, they must also have a part of the compartments where they carry pets. There the air is more tolerable.”
Still, Chinchilla was surprised by the incident.
“It is the first time I have heard of a case like this,” he said.