South African Airways said it is still mystified by the identity and origins of a mutilated body found in the wheel-well of one of its aircraft that flew to New York.
It has been reported that parts of the body fell out of the aircraft as the pilot lowered the aircraft’s wheels to land at New York’s John F Kennedy airport on Tuesday.
The flight had originated in Johannesburg and landed at Dakar, Senegal, before crossing the Atlantic.
The body was apparently ripped apart by the wheel mechanism. A leg, with a hip and part of a spine attached, landed on a New York woman’s home and bounced onto her lawn.
At least one other part fell elsewhere. The body parts caused no apparent damage and no-one else was hurt.
The rest of the remains were found in the wheel-well. The stowaway may have frozen to death before the body was mutilated.
Transatlantic flights often fly as high as 13km above the earth, twice as high as Mount Everest. The temperature at such heights can be as low as minus 30 degrees Celsius. There is also very little oxygen in the air at that height.
An aircraft’s wheel-wells are not heated or pressurised, making a stowaway’s chances of survival negligible.
SAA spokesperson Onkgopotse JJ Tabane said on Thursday he could not throw any light on the stowaway’s identity or sex.
According to a 2003 report, the US Federal Aviation Authority counted 13 such stowaways in 2000. Just three survived. In 2001, six tried to enter the United States in such a fashion, with no survivors. In 2002, five perished and one survived.
The numbers may be higher as some bodies may have tumbled out into the ocean or into remote regions and never been found.
The report said there were occasional ”miracle” cases, such as the tale of Fidel Maruhi, a Tahitian who lived through a seven-and-a-half-hour flight from Papeete to Los Angeles.
When he was discovered, Maruhi’s body temperature was apparently 26,1 degrees Celsius, about three degrees colder than what is usually considered fatal.
Repatriated to Tahiti, Maruhi later said that he remembers nothing of the trip, having blacked out just after takeoff. – Sapa