Do stowaways on airplanes expose a security risk?

Sheldon H. Jacobson, Tribune News Service

Earlier this month, two bodies were found in the wheel well of a JetBlue airplane that departed from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport en route to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. The bodies had already begun to decompose, suggesting that the people had died some time before they were discovered. The National Transportation Safety Board did not view this as a safety issue involving flight crew or operations, and so it did not initiate any further investigation.

Such incidents, though rare, occur frequently enough that some explanation is necessary and perhaps some actions can be taken to avoid future events. More concerning: Are such events exposing a weak point for aviation security in general? For most people, it is unimaginable that someone would attempt to fly in the wheel well of a commercial jet and expect to survive. Commercial airplane cabins are pressurised and heated, so flying at altitudes as high as 7 miles above sea level is safe. The air outside the cabin is even colder than the most extreme winter arctic blasts we experience in the continental United States. The low levels of oxygen at high elevations also ensures that a person in a wheel well will eventually lose consciousness until the airplane drops below 10,000 feet.

Anyone who believes they can survive several hours under such extreme conditions lacks an understanding of the risks they are taking. They are effectively signing their death sentence by lodging themselves in any part of an airplane outside its climate-controlled cabin. Despite this, somewhat surprisingly, there are some who manage to survive. The profile of the person who undertakes this risky behaviour is male and often younger than 30 years old; many have been in their teens. Since 2015, there have been 32 wheel well stowaways globally, with five on US carriers. This has resulted in 24 deaths and eight people surviving, a 75% fatality rate. How does a person gain access to the tarmac and the wheel wells of a plane? The barriers that must be overcome are numerous and complex, particularly in the United States. The person did not enter the secure part of the airport with a ticket. That means they compromised the barrier fences and gates or hid on a vehicle that had legitimate access. The airports where these people may have gained access are all extremely busy and have large physical footprints, such as New York’s JFK International Airport and Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.

Though airport perimeters are typically protected by fences, surveillance cameras and patrols, they are not impervious, particularly at night when activity and surveillance may be sparser, and that presents opportunities. Then there is gaining access to the airplanes themselves. Again, night hours when airplanes are parked at gates or in hangars may provide a person the opportunity to stow away in a wheel well in the hopes of remaining undetected by maintenance crews and airline staff until the flight departs the next morning. The more plausible explanation is that stowaways gain access to airplane wheel wells at foreign airports, with their bodies only discovered at domestic airports. For example, information about the JetBlue wheel well breach suggests that the stowaways may have gained access in Jamaica, where the airplane began its journey to JFK before flying to Salt Lake City, then back to JFK and finally to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where the bodies were discovered.

Given that airport security, particularly airport perimeter security, is certain to be less robust in non-US airports, this would provide a plausible explanation. It is also consistent with the fact that the bodies had already begun to decompose. It does not, however, explain why the bodies were not discovered by JetBlue maintenance staff when the airplane first arrived at JFK from Jamaica. Such inspections for flights that originate at airports with weaker perimeter security should be on the table for discussion.

A similar case involved a United flight in December that traveled from Chicago O’Hare to Hawaii. A body was found in a wheel well when the airplane arrived in Maui. However, the airplane originated in São Paulo, Brazil, which raises the question of when the stowaway entered the wheel well. Attempting to stow away in a wheel well is risky. Given that these events, globally speaking, are rare, systemwide policy changes are not necessary. What is appropriate is for maintenance to inspect the wheel wells of airplanes arriving from foreign airports. This simple procedure may lead to earlier detection of these reckless travelers or, in the majority of these cases, their bodies.

The more concerning issue is that if young, inexperienced people can find a way into an airplane’s wheel well, could a sophisticated bad actor follow a similar pathway to gain access to airplanes? This should be a matter for discussion at the Transportation Security Administration, particularly for flights originating outside the US.

Any avoidable death is a tragedy. Stowaways in airplane wheel wells indicate that security breaches are occurring that enable such access. Anytime security vulnerabilities are found somewhere, they expose a security threat that can occur anywhere. How the airlines and the TSA address this issue remains to be seen.