http://tinyurl.com/of7v557
(CNN)—A stowaway on a British Airways jet was found dead after falling on a
roof as the plane approached London Heathrow Airport, authorities said Friday.
It's unclear whether the man had crouched in the wheel well, a common hiding
place among stowaways.
A second man who was hiding in the undercarriage of the plane was
hospitalized with injuries, the airline said.
The plane was flying from Johannesburg to London when the man fell Thursday
and landed above a business in Richmond, southwest London. Johannesburg and
London are about 6,000 miles apart, and the flight is nearly 12 hours long.
In a statement, Metropolitan Police said an investigation is underway, and
British Airways said it's working with authorities in both nations to get
more details.
Plenty of people have hitched a ride on a plane by holing up in a wheel well.
Most don't survive.
In April last year, a 15-year-old boy sneaked into the wheel well of a Boeing
767 and flew from San Jose, California, to Maui, Hawaii. He survived.
In February of the same year, crews at Dulles International Airport in
suburban Washington found the body of a man inside the wheel well of an
Airbus A340 operated by South African Airways.
It's not difficult to climb inside a wheel well, Jose Wolfman Guillen, a
ground operations coordinator at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, said
last year.
"You can grab onto the struts and landing gear assembly kind of like a
ladder," he said. "And you just jump on the tire and climb into the wheel
well."
But after takeoff, many scenarios could kill a stowaway hiding in the landing
gear wheel well.
Inside, there's not much room