Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Wheel Well Passengers

If you've watched the news recently you may have heard about the 15 year-old boy who stowed away in the wheel well of an airplane that flew from California to Hawaii.  He endured extreme cold and a lack of oxygen, but he survived.  I thought surely the Federal Aviation Administration would have statistics on this sort of incident, but all I found was a report from 1996 that summarizes incidents from 1947-1993.  See report #96/25, "Survival at High Altitudes: Wheel Well Passengers:" 

http://www.faa.gov/data_research/research/med_humanfacs/oamtechreports/1990s/1996/9625/

And for those of you who might be thinking about stowing away, please reconsider.  Even though airplane seats are nearly as uncomfortable as the wheel well, you do at least get heat and oxygen on most flights.

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