Posted on 12/11/2010 7:13:58 AM PST by outpostinmass2
A month after the mangled body of a North Carolina teenager was found in a quiet Milton neighborhood, Norfolk District Attorney William R. Keating said yesterday that evidence indicates he stowed away in the wheel well of a plane and fell from the sky as the landing gear came down on the approach to Logan International Airport.
A shirt stained with what appeared to be grease used in airplanes and believed to be Delvonte Tisdale’s was recovered yesterday, along with sneakers, scattered along the flight path, Keating said. The items were found about a half-mile from where the 16-year-old’s body was discovered on Brierbrook Street on the night of Nov. 15, authorities said.
Fingerprints and a handprint were also discovered in the left wheel well of a Boeing 737 commercial airliner that left Charlotte Douglas International Airport at 7 p.m. Nov. 15 and landed at Logan about two hours later, Keating said. Investigators are still awaiting test results to confirm that the prints are Tisdale’s, but Keating said it appears likely that they are.
The conclusion that the teenager’s death was not believed to be a homicide, as initially thought, quickly shifted the focus of the investigation to the Charlotte airport and the Transportation Security Administration.
“It appears more likely than not that Mr. Tisdale was able to breach airport security and hide in the wheel well of a commercial jet airliner without being detected by airport security,’’ Keating said during a press conference, calling it a major breach of airport security.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
You’re the only one who even addresses the issue of this kid having access to a passenger jet - you know the planes the rest of us have to endure groping to get that close to?
Yeah ... at 30 thou plus feet altitude and temperatures in the wheel well of the aircraft well below freezing this individual didn't have a chance of surviving.
That's really sad, at that age who can say "why", maybe a lark, an adventure, not considering the deadly conditions (temp, lack of oxygen, etc.) in a wheel well. Some of the hair-brain things I did at that age humble me as I think back and realize what could have happened.
At least his junk didn’t get touched. /sarc
That was a plot line on an old “Law & Order” episode I think.
Outpost I know that area very well, if he fell out just a few seconds earlier his body might not have been found for months, very sad but at least his family didn’t go months without knowing.
Movie stars do it all the time. Heck, I've even seen them ride on the outside of a jet, and their hair doesn't even get out of place.
: )
Here's a photo taken from inside a 737's main gear well. Looks like there's plenty of room. He probably fell because a turn had moved his unconscious or dead body from where he was holed up (probably about the spot this photo was taken from) onto the wheel itself.
Given his studies of flight science, you’d think he’d know better.
“In February of this year, a frozen body was found in the wheel well on a flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York when it landed at Narita International Airport in Japan, but it was later discovered that he did not actually stow away on the plane in New York. In fact, his body had been undetected in the wheel well since he stowed away Dec. 12, 2009, during a flight from Lagos, Nigeria, to New York.”
In all that time no one did any inspection/maintenance work on that wheel well? I thought these planes were inspectred routinely and frequently.
He probably was, but back in 2002 a 24 year old managed to get from Havana to Montreal in the nose well of a Cubana DC-10. I don’t know how these people avoid hypoxia, but some of them do.
I think if he was alive he could have avoided falling out pretty easily (see my post upthread with the photo link) so he must have expired en route and then his body shifted around and ended up on top of the main gear wheel.
Uncle analysis fail:
“It seems pretty far-fetched to me,’’ said Brown, questioning how he could have made it across the tarmac and onto a plane with the increased scrutiny of the TSA. “He would have to go into the terminal, find out where the plane is, and he’d have to go to TSA to get to where that plane is. Then he would have to orient himself once he got on the field. That’s just too much for a child to do.
1.Why go through the terminal at all? Why not just hop the fence?
2. Finding where airplanes are? How hard is that? An observant and articulate toddler could point them out, much less a 16 year-old.
3. Is the TSA actually watching aircraft on the tarmac/at the gate from the ground, or are they just shaking down grandmothers in wheelchairs at the security checkpoint? Never mind- I think I know the answer to that.
In other articles it was mentioned that he was really, really homesick for Baltimore. The working theory is that he got on the wrong jet.
He may have been thinking he could survive becaause of the short time at altitude you’d experience on a flight to Balto.
There’s plenty of room. See post 28.
Yeah, amazing given all the (justified) screaming going on around this site over the nudie scans and patdowns.
Amazing that he would have acccessed the tarmac without being noticed yet alone climb into the wheel well. The plane took off at 7 pm, so it would have still been light outside. Puzzling.
As a former crew chief, I can guarantee you that a body wouldn’t be missed on time in the wheel well of my jet, much less for a couple of months.
I don’t have airline experience, but I can tell you that preflight inspections are pretty thorough, and the ones in between (called “thruflight” in the Air Force) would certainly involve checking around the wheel well area for leaks.
evidence indicates he stowed away in the wheel well of a plane and fell from the sky as the landing gear came downOther than the lack of oxygen and extreme cold, this was a workable plan. /sarc
Yeah, the “uncle” is way off.
Here’s the plan:
1. Use the web to determine the flight number of a regular flight from your airport to Baltimore.
2. Check arrival gate for that flight on the airport website.
3. Hop fence, go to that gate.
What probably happened is he got disoriented and went to the wrong gate, or they switched gates, which happens occasionally. Then he ended up on a Boston flight instead of a Baltimore flight.
Lots of activity on a commercial ramp.
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