UMVA has learned that a tragic discovery was made on a plane that landed at Gatwick Airport on Tuesday, June 16, when the body of a stowaway was found in the landing gear well of an Airbus jet.
The stowaway had managed to climb into the landing gear well underneath the plane before it took off from Tangier Ibn Battouta Airport in Morocco, and the cargo team unloading the plane had a horrific shock when they found the body.
According to information obtained by UMVA, the plane had departed from Tangier at about 6:23 am and traveled over Spain and western France before preparing to land at Gatwick Airport, a journey that took several hours.
Sources have confirmed to UMVA that the incident has left everyone devastated, with concerns about the desperation that drives individuals to take such extreme risks with their lives.
Police were called to the scene after the body was discovered at around 11:45 am, and officers are investigating the incident, preparing a report for HM Coroner.
Climbing into the wheel well of a plane is a perilous act, with over 77% of people who have attempted to do so resulting in fatalities, according to data from aviation authorities.
The risks are numerous, with the landing gear able to crush stowaways, and frostbite, hypothermia, and low oxygen levels posing significant threats during the flight.
This incident is not an isolated case, as a similar discovery was made in September when a body was found inside the landing gear of a plane at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport.
Such cases can be difficult to investigate due to the clandestine nature of stowaway attempts, making it challenging for detectives to identify the victims.
A particularly harrowing case occurred in 2019 when a body fell from a plane and landed in a garden in Clapham, south London, highlighting the tragic consequences of such actions.
