Unhappy landings

Savannah News ^ | January 5, 2004 | Editorial

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PRIOR TO Sept. 11, 2001, stories about stowaways holed up inside the landing gear compartments of jet airliners were good fodder for "That's Incredible" or "News of the Weird." But these days they don't raise eyebrows so much as furrow them. It's no longer about the incredible risks some people take, but rather the vulnerability of commercial aircraft to sabotage.

Twice in less than a week in late December, police at New York's Kennedy International Airport discovered bodies in the wheel wells of arriving jets. One was a British Airways flight from London's Heathrow Airport, the other an American Airlines flight from Montego Bay, Jamaica.

That's not a new phenomenon. In 2000, the Federal Aviation Authority reported 13 such stowaways, three of whom survived. In 2001, six tried to enter the United States in such a fashion, with no survivors. In 2002, another six attempted it and only one survived. It's possible, though, that the fatalities are higher since some stowaways may have fallen from the compartments while flying over water or remote areas before being discovered and their bodies were never recovered.

It's not hard to see why the survival rate is so low. Wheel wells are not pressurized nor heated like passenger cabins. Thus, human stowaways are subjected to extreme temperatures and limited oxygen supply when jetliners reach cruising altitudes of around 30,000 feet. Most either asphyxiate or freeze to death when exposed to temperatures of 40 degrees below zero.

Others tumble out when the gear is deployed at an altitude of around 1,500 feet, since there's little to grab hold of and there's no advance warning when the gear doors open. One moment you're curled up next to the tires, the next you're hurtling toward a hard — and fatal — landing.

The fact that anyone survives these excursions is remarkable. Most apparently do it to escape Third World poverty and oppression, which indicates their level of desperation (if not their ignorance of the odds of surviving).

But it's even more troubling that these stowaways are able to climb aboard the planes and escape detection. In the wake of 9/11 so much effort has gone into increasing security in cockpits and cabins, and screening ticketed passengers and ground crews. Yet, there appears to be a huge gap in tarmac security as a plane begins to taxi prior to takeoff.

If a desperate, ordinary Joe can sneak into a wheel well without being noticed, then certainly a calculating terrorist could find a way to plant an explosive device on the landing gear, or climb aboard and act as a suicide bomber. The world is extremely fortunate that all the stowaways so far appear to have had non-violent intentions.

Consider the latest incidents at Kennedy a huge wake-up call.

With all the efforts over the holidays to cancel flights with suspected terrorists aboard, and having military escorts for incoming international flights, it makes sense for airport security officials to monitor planes as they taxi to the runways to ensure that nobody comes within spitting distance of the landing gear. Click here to return to story: