Experts Say Hitching a Ride In an Airliner's Wheel Well Is Not a Good Idea

Hugh Pickens DOT Com (2995471) writes "Hasani Gittens reports that as miraculous as it was that a 16-year-old California boy was able to hitch a ride from San Jose to Hawaii and survive, it isn't the first time a wheel-well stowaway has lived to tell about it. The FAA says that since 1947 there have been 105 people who have tried to surreptitiously travel in plane landing gear — with a survival rate of about 25 percent. But agency adds that the actual numbers are probably higher, as some survivors may have escaped unnoticed, and bodies could fall into the ocean undetected. Except for the occasional happy ending, hiding in the landing gear of a aircraft as it soars miles above the Earth is generally a losing proposition. According to an FAA/Wright State University study titled 'Survival at High Altitudes: Wheel-Well Passengers,' at 20,000 feet the temperature experienced by a stowaway would be -13 F, at 30,000 it would be -45 in the wheel well — and at 40,000 feet, the mercury plunges to a deadly -85 F (PDF). 'You're dealing with an incredibly harsh environment,' says aviation and security expert Anthony Roman. 'Temperatures can reach -50 F, and oxygen levels there are barely sustainable for life.' Even if a strong-bodied individual is lucky enough to stand the cold and the lack of oxygen, there's still the issue of falling out of the plane. 'It's almost impossible not to get thrown out when the gear opens,' says Roman.

So how do the lucky one-in-four survive? The answer, surprisingly, is that a few factors of human physiology are at play: As the aircraft climbs, the body enters a state of hypoxia—that is, it lacks oxygen—and the person passes out. At the same time, the frigid temperatures cause a state of hypothermia, which preserves the nervous system. 'It's similar to a young kid who falls to the bottom of an icy lake," says Roman. "and two hours later he survives, because he was so cold.'"

Comments

Nice country you have over there.

[Anonymous Coward]

Half of the population is assholes, and the rest are only a point or two above retards. Real nice.

Re:units

[AlphaWolf_HK]

Or perhaps Aviation, which uses US units in aircraft design all around the world. Could have something to do with heavier than air flight originating in the US, as well as the US having what is by far the largest aerospace manufacturing industry. That, and slashdot is *gasp* an American website? If you had any awareness of anything outside of your own narrow viewpoint you might realize both of those.

Anyways, an obvious troll and/or flamebait post modded insightful? Why...because bashing America is always a good thing, right? Enough of this "well the rest of the world does it differently..." bullshit. Every country in the world has something unique about it, so there's a "well the rest of the world" statement that can be made about everybody. Get off of your high horse and go mow your lawn.