Heard on LGW GMC this morning, fire service reported they were 'removing a stowaway' from Ghana 757. Stand 130 had fire/ambulance attendance and what appeared to be screening around the left main gear, with AFS asking ATC to keep other aircraft away from the area.

Frozen stiff, no doubt.
We should add this to the ongoing debate about airport security/screening and its effectiveness.

How prevalent is this (presumably terminal) problem at UK's international airports?

It is sad to think that someone would be so desparate or stupid to try this sort of thing

Its been a fairly common occurrence with bodies dropping from undercarriages prior to landing, Gatwick and Stansted come to mind.

It goes to show how desperate some people are to leave the country riddled with debt, corruption and appauling standard of living.

God only knows how he got through security at Gatwick !!;)

Wouldn't he/she be arriving at LGW not departing? LGW security has nothing to do with it in this case.

BBC News report (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/sussex/8132766.stm)

Fly3, I think it was a joke !!

Fly3, I think it was a joke !!
Quite a good one to!

[QUOTE][God only knows how he got through security at Gatwick !! /QUOTE]

Easy! he just stiffed them :}

A while ago a body was found in a ditch north of Amsterdam. It took some time before somebody noted it was the location that most aircraft selected geardown on approach to SPL........

Ghana International Airlines (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghana_International_Airlines) uses B757-200 (G-STRZ) leased in from, and operated by, Astraeus (http://www.flystar.com/acmi.html).

To those posters who seem to find something amusing in the death of another. You are a sick pack of ghouls. The poor person obviously was desperate to escape from a rotten life. Hang your heads in shame those who joke about this event and those who allow such trash to be posted.

Old Fella
:D:D:D

One illegal who didn't make it.
Unfortunately, thousands do.

To those posters who seem to find something amusing in the death of another.
I found the joke in comparing the UK and the countries of origin of the stowaways. Not necessarily the outcome of the incident, so no need to jump to conclusions!

Brakes on
:mad::mad:

StephenM_SMC
If you found any aspect of the incident funny my original message is still applicable.

Basil
The price this one paid is as high as it could be.

Old Fella,
The problem in the UK is that we were full decades ago. Our country is overpopulated with high unemployment. We cannot afford to pay handouts at the present rate.
Unlike many of our huggy fluffs I am prepared to court unpopularity by saying so. As a result I am proud to have been called a racist and bigot for pointing out the elephant in the room which most pretend to ignore.

France, for instance, is much less densely populated but illegal immigrants seem to wish to leave there and come to the UK - I wonder why?
Australia may look underpopulated but, as you will know, has a very low percentage of habitable land coupled with a potential water shortage.

Basil I fully understand your situation and I also believe that illegal entrants cannot be tolerated. Our previous PM John Howard had a much more practical approach to the problem than does the present incumbent. That said, I found the so called jokes posted by some others to be in poor taste. I am no bleeding heart as anyone who knows me would attest to, however I find it difficult to see any justification in joking about the death of some poor beggar trying to escape from a rotten life, even if he did try to get into the UK illegally. Cheers.

While the issue discussed here is very serious, and some poor sod lost his life, the issue it indicates is even more so.

If you can clamber into the gear it's even easier to rig a bomb and throw it in there. I won't be silly enough to detail the simple electronics even a dunce like me could put together.

It's bad enough that one bloke died. A 757 or greater falling onto a major conurbation like London is on another page.

GW, having had several instances of having to delay whilst a search of the aircraft was conducted (C130 & B747) to try and locate a device and also having to have a suspicious radio/player removed after leaving the gate (found by a Cabin attendant during pax boarding and told it would be alright by the station traffic officer, just after it was confirmed an explosive device in such a radio brought down the PanAm B747 over Lockerbie) I appreciate your point. How did the unfortunate person get into the gear well undetected? Maybe he was a worker with an airside pass at the departure airport. In any event, I agree that the security aspect cannot be dismissed.

old fella

As for some poor beggars trying to escape from a rotten life, have you been to earls court recently ?

A sensible question what would have been the likely COD?

Crushed by the landing gear? Or Hyperthermia due to the cold temperatures?

I ask becuase I dont know if there is room in a 757 landing gear bay for anyone to fit in there without being crushed by a Hydrualic powered Gear.

Crushed by the landing gear? Or Hyperthermia due to the cold temperatures?

as far as im aware theres not that much room in the gear bay... i wouldnt like to take my chances

If he wasnt crushed, then it was either Hyperthermia or lack of oxygen.. cant imagine anyone could survive for 2 long at cruising altitude without an oxygen supply?

Dependant on type it is possible to get into a space in the landing gear bay and not be crushed when the gear is retracted. These spaces are sometimes used during engineering inspections.

Just before you ask I am not going to detail types and locations on this forum.

Heathrow Airport The stowaway could have been crushed or suffered from hypothermia initially and would most certainly have died from oxygen deprivation as the aircraft climbed to cruise altitude where the ambient temperature would/could be as low as Minus 55 degrees C or even lower.

It may not have been due to poor security at the departure airport.
He may have jumped up and grabbed the wheel as it was retracting.

He may have jumped up and grabbed the wheel as it was retracting.- I fear your sense of humour outstrips mine.:confused:

A and C and OldFella,

Thanks very much, is there any pics of the Inside of a 757 landing gear bay?

With or without..?

With or without..?


Now, that is funny....

I wont give out any more information on this subject on an open forum.

To do so would encourage desperate people to try to stow away with the predictable result of death by lack of oxygen or exposure to extreme cold.

What I will make clear to any one who will listen is that if you stowaway in a landing gear bay you will die, the only thing in question is will that death be a long slow lingering one or a quick very painful one?

I presume you meant with or without stowaway!

One can only sympathise with someone desperate enough to risk death to escape a country which has poverty, corruption, disease, neglect or slavery as a future.
Unfortunately, those of us who worry about a few dollars rise or fall in the price of barrels of crude oil affecting our bank balances are not without guilt, as some of the worse excesses of cruelty are found in the oil-producing regions.
So I think it a bit hypocritical to express concern over one man, when oil-rich nations corruptly kill thousands each year with our conivance.

Sharksandwich. Are you suggesting one man does not matter? If you are I feel you are at best deluded, at worst a ****** of the first order. That you can find joking about even one person being killed says enough about you for me to believe the latter.

One man does matter.
I do not think it a joke.
We in the First World worry about the cost of fuel.
They worry about the cost of life.
I am not a f ////r.