Suspected stowaway is found dead in plane's landing gear at a North Carolina airport

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Airplane maintenance workers at a North Carolina airport found the body of a suspected stowaway in the landing gear compartment of an American Airlines flight that had recently arrived from Europe, police said.

The body was found Sunday morning while the plane was undergoing maintenance at Charlotte Douglas International Airport. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department said in a statement that it is investigating the death.

Neither the airline nor police have offered information about the person who died, including a possible cause of death, or said where the flight originated.

The airport said it was deeply saddened by the discovery and said it will support the police investigation. American Airlines said it was working with law enforcement on its investigation and directed questions to police.

Experts believe roughly three-quarters of stowaways do not survive if they hide on a plane’s undercarriage because of the extreme cold and lack of oxygen they experience as the plane reaches cruising altitude.

In January, two bodies were found in the landing gear compartment of a JetBlue aircraft at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. The bodies were discovered in the wheel well area during a routine post-flight inspection. The aircraft had arrived in Fort Lauderdale shortly after flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. The jet had been in both Kingston, Jamaica, and Salt Lake City, Utah, earlier that day.

In December, a body was found in the wheel well of a United Airlines plane after it landed in Maui from Chicago.