NEW YORK (CNN) -- A man was found dead Tuesday night in the wheel well of a British Airways plane at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, authorities said.
It is the second body found in the wheel well of a plane at the airport in less than a week.
The discovery comes at a time of a heightened terror threat alert level in the nation. On Monday, the Department of Homeland Security asked that foreign air carriers have armed marshals on some flights in the United States when requested.
The body was discovered while the aircraft's first officer was conducting a routine examination after the plane's arrival from London's Heathrow Airport.
"The aircraft's first officer was conducting an examination of the plane when he was struck by a strong odor coming from the left wheel well," a law enforcement official involved in the investigation said.
The dead stowaway, a black male between the ages of 30 and 35, was wearing shoes and pants with some Nigerian currency in his pants pocket, the official said.
"The plane was in Lagos, Nigeria, on Christmas Eve, and we believe the man climbed into the wheel well while it was in Nigeria," he said.
Jim Peters with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said the body was found hidden in the wheel well about 7 p.m. ET, was removed immediately and taken to the medical examiner's office.
A British Airways spokesman confirmed that a body was removed from the wheel well of one of the airline's jets, but he declined to provide additional information and would not speculate on any possible breach of security.
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey spokesman Tony Ciavolella said the Boeing 747 flew to JFK from Heathrow as Flight 177.
The FBI, Port Authority, Queens district attorney's office and Transportation Security Administration are conducting a joint investigation, Ciavolella said.
On Christmas Day, the body of a man was found at JFK on an American Airlines flight from Jamaica
All conspiracy theorists are welcome to offer their theories on this. I'm sure that alien abduction was somehow involved.
Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi wrote:I'd say he was a stowaway trying to get to America, and one worthy of a Darwin Award at that.
But remember that there were TWO of them, from different countries and on different flights all to the same airport and both occured within the span of one week. Coincidence?
The Kernel wrote:
But remember that there were TWO of them, from different countries and on different flights all to the same airport and both occured within the span of one week. Coincidence?
But that's twice as unlikely as only one stowaway! This forces us to ask when the Bush Administration will demand that all wheel wells be equipped with panic buttons.
To business. We know that two different people from two different places were trying to reach New York, also called 'The Big Apple'. Now what would force them to be unable to take a plane in the regular sense? Well, Perhaps Aliens contacted them, and promised a flight to New York to steal some of this 'Big Apple", in a dastardly attempt to reduce Earth's amount of fruit. The Aliens figured that anyone coming on board a plane with some of the 'Big Apple' would immedietly be stopped, as anybody carrying around large bits of fruit aregenerally suspect. However, sicne the Aliens didn't provide instructions on how to get out of the wheel wells, only how to enter, the stowaways were stuck there. They should be closely investigated for fresh fruit.
The dead stowaway, a black male between the ages of 30 and 35, was wearing shoes and pants with some Nigerian currency in his pants pocket, the official said.
I guess he got tired of e-mailing Americans to try to get them to help bring his money over and decided to covert it to cash and bring it over himself.
"Stop! No one can survive these deadly rays!"
"These deadly rays will be your death!"
- Thor and Akton, Starcrash
"Before man reaches the moon your mail will be delivered within hours from New York to California, to England, to India or to Australia by guided missiles.... We stand on the threshold of rocket mail."
- Arthur Summerfield, US Postmaster General 1953 - 1961
The dead stowaway, a black male between the ages of 30 and 35, was wearing shoes and pants with some Nigerian currency in his pants pocket, the official said.
I guess he got tired of e-mailing Americans to try to get them to help bring his money over and decided to covert it to cash and bring it over himself.
Too bad he never emailed me. I'd have simply given him my brother's information, and intercepted the package.
Mayabird is my girlfriend
Justice League:BotM:MM:SDnet City Watch:Cybertron's Finest "Well then, science is bullshit. "
-revprez, with yet another brilliant rebuttal.
Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi wrote:I'd say he was a stowaway trying to get to America, and one worthy of a Darwin Award at that.
But remember that there were TWO of them, from different countries and on different flights all to the same airport and both occured within the span of one week. Coincidence?
Actualy this is not new. This kind of things happen from time to time. But most cases occur on the south asia to middle east route so most westerners are unaware of this bizare hitchhiking.
I have to tell you something everything I wrote above is a lie.
CaptainChewbacca wrote:Interesting thing is a man once survived stowing away in a wheel well from Barcelona to Chicago. He fell out when the plane landed.
This has happened several times. I recall the incident of a Bangladeshi being killed like this in Dubai.
The real "smart" people use the cargo bay. Many have succesfuly made the trip this way, though some were caught later by airport security while the unlucky ones froze to death at 30000 feet. And if you think this is stupid two people actualy tried to hide in the jet engines of an airliner.
I have to tell you something everything I wrote above is a lie.
One other point that is a bit of 'irony' is with all the heightened security to guard the plane, check the cargo, and screen the people on board at all the various air ports coming and going you get people climbing into wheel wells. It would be one nasty way to smuggle a suicide bomber for destroying a plane. Of course, then you have find some one foolish enough to be willing TO climb into the wheel well of a air liner.
Given that there are people risking their lives in an airplane wheel cage for a $5 / hour job in the west it would not be difficult to find volunteers. And as I mentioned in the my post there are others places like the cargo bay where people can hide and survive if they can withstand the cold and the defeaning sound of the jet engines.
I have to tell you something everything I wrote above is a lie.
But that's twice as unlikely as only one stowaway! This forces us to ask when the Bush Administration will demand that all wheel wells be equipped with panic buttons.
You are no fun at all.
