Stowaway found dead in plane’s landing gear at North Carolina airport

A stowaway was found dead in the landing gear of an American Airlines plane at Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina, according to police.

The discovery was made shortly after 9 a.m. on Sunday when maintenance was being performed on a plane that had recently arrived from Europe, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) said in a press release. The person was pronounced dead at the scene by CMPD’s Airport Division officers.

Homicide Unit detectives responded to investigate, while Crime Scene Search collected evidence from the aircraft. CMPD said the investigation remains active and ongoing.

The identity of the victim and details about the specific flight have not been released.

“CLT Airport is aware of the tragic discovery involving a deceased individual found in an American Airlines aircraft this morning,” a CLT spokesperson told Newsweek in a statement. “We are deeply saddened by this news and will support Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department’s (CMPD) investigation as needed.”

A similar incident occurred on January 6, when two teenage stowaways from the Dominican Republic were found dead in the landing gear of a JetBlue plane after it landed in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Their bodies were discovered during a post-flight inspection, and the cause of death was determined to be asphyxiation.