[KellyAdmirer]

It really doesn't matter how good US airline security is for international travel if foreign security is lax. The good thing here is that at least JFK security is on the ball, or at least more than that at these other places.

[Moose4]

Actually, another article that I read on this indicated that the British Airways first officer (copilot) was the one that discovered their, er, extra passenger...by noticing the smell as he was doing a walkaround inspection of the aircraft. Ewww.

It's possible to live a few hours in one of those wheel wells, people have done it before. They're sealed (more or less) but not pressurized, and I imagine there must be enough room in there to avoid getting crushed by the landing gear on retraction. A stowaway might "only" have to deal with temperatures of, say, -10F instead of -60F, because of things in the bay that generate heat. But the lack of oxygen would eventually kill them. A 747 on a trans-Atlantic flight is going to be cruising at 40,000 feet or more for hours.

}:-)4