Dead body found in wheel well of United flight from Chicago to Hawaii

A body was recovered inside the landing gear compartment of a United Airlines plane after it landed at Kahului Airport in Hawaii on Tuesday. The plane, United Flight 202, arrived from Chicago O’Hare International Airport.

The airline stated that the compartment is only accessible from outside the aircraft. United is cooperating with authorities in the investigation.

"The department is investigating the death," said Alana K Pico, a department spokesperson. The airline involved is cooperating with law enforcement.

“The wheel well was only accessible from outside of the aircraft. At this time, it is not clear how or when the person accessed the wheel well,” United told the New York Times.

Authorities are investigating how a person entered the landing gear compartment of an airplane. The compartment, located underneath the plane, houses the retractable landing gear. The method and time of entry remain unknown. "It was unclear how or when the person entered the wheel well, a compartment underneath the plane that stores the retractable landing gear."

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has said that survival in aircraft wheel wells is uncommon. “Low oxygen levels in wheel storage compartments and extreme temperatures as flights climb to cruising altitudes make surviving in the wheel wells or other areas of commercial aircrafts rare,” the FAA has previously stated.

While authorities have not classified the death is the only incident, there have been other similar cases. In 2021, a man survived a flight from Guatemala to Miami inside the landing gear compartment. In 2019, a body was found in a London backyard, believed to have fallen from a plane’s landing gear during a flight from Kenya.