Pilots found the body of a South African teen yesterday in the wheel well of a British Airways flight at LAX during a routine inspection shortly before it was scheduled to return to London.
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British Airways 283, a 747-400, had arrived at LAX from London Heathrow. Before that, the plane had made trips to Hong Kong, Singapore, Cape Town, and Vancouver.
The victim was a black male carrying South African papers, and the FBI has yet to determine where he came aboard the aircraft. On January 12, the body of a young African male was discovered in the wheel well of a Delta flight that landed in Atlanta from Dakar, Senegal.
People attempt to stowaway in the wheel wells of aircraft too often…the temperature while in the air can be fifty below zero, and the oxygen thin. Only a small percentage of them survive.
