Man stows away in cargo crate

[Bubbette]

To save a few dollars?
How stupid!
Man ships himself in air crate
2 hours, 7 minutes ago


DALLAS (Reuters) - A New York man trying to save a few dollars on his air fare is under investigation for stowing himself in an air cargo crate that was delivered to his parents' home near Dallas, authorities say.

. . . .McKinley, from Brooklyn, apparently packed himself in the box -- perhaps with the help of a friend -- and sent himself air express on a flight that went from the New York area, with a stop near Niagara Falls, New York, to Fort Wayne, Indiana.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=857&ncid=757&e=10&u=/nm/20030910/od_uk_nm/oukoe_crime_stowaway

[fod-bod]

On the crate incident, would it be cynical to draw parallels with some of the budget carriers? Did he, for example, get any refreshments served en route?

Just wondered...

[Bubbette]

that's the thing--he paid the equivalent of a first class ticket! There might be something morehere, as he was arrested on bounced check charges.

[747FOCAL]

Almost bad that they pointed this out to Uncle Osama. Now all they need to do to hyjack a cargo aircraft is mail themselves someplace. :suspect:

[MidnightSpecial]

If any moron can stash themselves in a cargo crate what do you think al queda will do?

This is why cargp pilots need to be armed. We don't have passengers or FAs to help us deal with terrorists. We are on our own up there.

[Gordinho]

Unless the crate gets stuck at the bottom of a netted pallet in the aft cargo lower deck cargo bay of a 747. But if a human being can make it onto a plane as cargo, how hard would it be to send a really big bomb?

[weekend_ppl]

A selected snippet from the CNN story on this:

His box was carried in the pressurized, heated cabins, but could just as easily have been placed in the lower, unpressurized holds, said Richard G. Phillips, chief executive of Pilot Air Freight.

"He could easily have died," Phillips said.

The freight cost -- billed to McKinley's employer -- was $550. At that rate, "he could have flown first-class," Phillips said.

From what I know there aren't many unpressurized cargo holds and a quick orbitz search got the cheapest JFK-DFW first class one way ticket down to $951 and that wouldn't even include pickup and delivery. Perhaps this guy is onto more than Mr. Phillips wants to admit?

[747FOCAL]

There are no "unpressurized" holds. Unheated yes. They tried to design a way to not pressurize the holds and I believe their test aircraft had the floor colapse and bust all the control cables. :{ He probably doesn't even know what kind of aircraft they fly. :E

[flynverted]

He must have been on a pallet with other live animals, or else he would have been suffocated. At KHA we wrap all pallets with colored plastic (except pallets w/ live animals) before netting.

[maxy101]

Thank goodness there wasn´t a cargo fire!! I should imagine suffocation isn´t a nice way to go!!!