Man found frozen to death in landing gear

Leslie

Leslie

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:( ACK! this is sad.
Some maintenance workers at Pearson Airport will probably never forget Saturday morning. That’s when they made an unlikely and chilling discovery aboard a flight that had just arrived from the Dominican Republic.

Around 12:30am, the crew was doing a weekly maintenance check on the Skyservice Airbus. When they looked in the plane’s rear landing gear, they found a man frozen, clad only in jeans and a sweater. Tragically, the man had been there for some time, as he was reported missing from his home country on January 6th. Police have identified him as Mariano Alexis Herrera-Ba, an aircraft maintenance employee from the Dominican. They believe he was in his mid-30s.

According to Constable Harry Tam of Peel Regional Police, Herrera-Ba would have had access to the aircraft compartment where his body turned up while performing regular maintenance duties for his job. “We'll continue the investigation to figure out whether he went in there intentionally, or accidentally was left in there when working,” he said.

Police note that the plane has made several trips back and forth between the two countries since Herrera-Ba's disappearance. Investigators say they don't suspect foul play.

Skyservice responded to the discovery with great regret. “We're very sad for this incident, that's for sure," spokeswoman Sheryn Posin stated. “We feel for this person that was on the aircraft as well as the maintenance crew that did discover him.” Skyservice operates a fleet of planes used by business customers, air ambulances and several of the largest tour operators in Canada, including Signature, Conquest and Sunquest.
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That happens a lot around here, by Kennedy Airport. They find stowaways in the landing gear, and they usually don't survive. What does happen too is that they die in the landing gear compartment and when the planes are on their final approach and lower the gear, the bodies fall into the water just south of where I live. Or worse, on buildings in the area.

We get many unidentified "drownings" which aren't really drownings.
 
I would think people would figure out that 33,000 feet is just a little too high to be without oxygen and/or heat.
 
An asshole did that and survived from Cuba to Montreal last month. I was expecting a flood of copycats. Looks like it's started.
 
You have to weigh that in direct proportion to their desperation to leave wherever they're coming from. Some of them do make it. But not in jeans and a t shirt. :eek:
 
Man May Have Fallen From Jet
Body Found On New York Beach


The Associated Press
L O N G B E A C H, N.Y., Feb. 28 — A dead man found on Long Island may have been a stowaway who fell from a jetliner arriving at Kennedy Airport.
A woman walking her dog found the body Saturday night behind Long Beach Hospital. The condition of the body suggested the man had fallen several thousand feet, said Nassau County Detective Sgt. William Cocks.
The Federal Aviation Administration examined flight patterns and schedules and said the body most likely fell from an American Airlines flight from the Dominican Republic, Newsday reported today.
Police speculated the victim had hidden in the landing gear and fell when the gear was lowered. The wheel well is not pressurized, and police believe the man could not have survived the flight.
The identity of the man and cause of death had not been determined Monday. Police said he carried British coins and cigarettes bought in Spain.
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That's about 1/2 mile from my house, that article is from last year I think.
 
So if someone drops into your yard, do you get to keep him? Could save a lot of money on dog food.
 
So, when was Uncle Fred going to drop by?

Well, I think that's him now.
 
Cops: Body Fell From an Airliner

Man thought to be a wheel-well stowaway
By Sid Cassese, Erica Solvig and Sylvia Adcock
STAFF WRITERS

August 8, 2001
An unidentified man apparently stowed away in the landing gear of a plane police believed was bound for New York City fell onto the pavement outside an Island Park restaurant yesterday evening.

"It appears that a man fell from a wheel well of a plane making its approach to Kennedy Airport," Det. Sgt. Dennis Farrell of the Nassau Homicide Squad said of the incident, which occurred about 6:30 p.m. Police had not identified the man last night.

Two men were leaving the parking lot at Jordan Lobster Farms when they heard a "loud explosion," turned around and saw the body.

Some witnesses say it was an American Airlines jetliner, but airline spokeswoman Mary Frances Fagan said she could not confirm the incident last night. Police could not confirm the plane's airline. Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Arlene Salac said the agency was notified by Nassau police and is sending flight standards investigators after witnesses reported seeing the body fall from a plane.

Long Beach resident Mike Bilski, an American Airlines mechanic, was walking with his stepdaughter Bailey, 9. The two were leaving National Night Out when they looked up and Bilski said, "Look honey, there's one of our planes coming in."

Bilski said the wheels then came out for landing, and a body fell. Bilski notified Long Beach Police Lt. Jack Gradin, who in turn called Nassau police.

Outside the Island Beach restaurant, Island Park resident Lily Michel was going to meet her niece for dinner. When she drove into the parking lot, she saw people circling, looking at the body. Police blocked traffic to the area for most of the evening.

A 1997 study by the FAA looked at 13 documented stowaway incidents resulting in eight deaths. Most of the stowaways gained access to the aircraft by hiding near the area where the plane waits for clearance to take off from the runway and then hiding in the wheel well that holds the retractable landing gear. Once the plane is aloft and the landing gear retracts, the stowaway has some security because a door closes over the wheel well area. But few can survive the subzero (as low as minus 80 degrees F) temperatures and low oxygen levels at cruising altitudes. And those who do risk falling to their death when the landing gear is lowered and the door to the wheel well opens as the plane prepares to land.

This would not be the first time someone has used an airplane's landing gear as their a to New York. In February 2000, a dead man found on Long Beach was a suspected stowaway from a jetliner. FAA officials said then that the body probably fell from an American Airlines flight to Kennedy Airport from the Dominican Republic. And in 1996, a body floating in waters near Kennedy Airport was believed by police and witnesses to have fallen from the wheel well of a plane landing at the airport.
Newsday - New York, NY
August 8, 2001
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Rusty and I must have gone to Jordan Lobster farms once a week every summer. It's right across the canal from Long Beach Hospital where the other guy was found.
 
greenfreak said:
You have to weigh that in direct proportion to their desperation to leave wherever they're coming from. Some of them do make it. But not in jeans and a t shirt. :eek:
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you're very right when it comes to that, gf...unbelievable what people do if they are really desperate..:(
 
Floral Park isn't that close to me but they have changed the flight patterns in the past year or so. I don't get half as many planes over my house as I used to. Now it's their turn to find bodies and body parts.

Do you see the damage on the roof behind her? Wow. And greusome, that his hip and spine were attached. Ugh.

How would you like to be the one to clean out the remaining pieces that were stuck in the landing gear? :sick:
 
I've been cold before. Nearly as cold as they face at altitude. That's not a pretty way to die. They say that before you drown, you feel a euphoria. But in cold like that, you feel yourself dying, inch by inch.
 
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