Man survives Guatemala-Miami flight hiding in landing gear compartment

MIAMI • A 26-year-old man survived a flight from Guatemala to Miami over the weekend after hiding in the airplane's landing gear compartment, officials said.

American Airlines Flight 1182 from Guatemala City landed at Miami International Airport last Saturday, according to Mr Alfredo Garduno, a spokesman for the airline.

Once the plane landed, it "was met by law enforcement due to a security issue", Mr Garduno said in a statement, adding that the airline was working with law enforcement agencies.

United States Customs and Border Protection said its agents had taken into custody a man "who attempted to evade detection in the landing gear compartment of an aircraft" that arrived in Miami from Guatemala last Saturday.

The man, whose name was not released, was taken to a hospital, the agency said.

"Persons are taking extreme risks when they try to conceal themselves in confined spaces such as an aircraft," the agency said in a statement. "This incident remains under investigation."

A 25-second video posted on Instagram last Saturday shows a man standing on the tarmac a few feet from the wheels of a plane. Two other men in yellow vests, one of which says "American" on the back, are next to him.

The first man, wearing an unzipped jacket, jeans and black boots, appears dizzy and sits down on the ground.

Mr Dan Vazquez, who shared the video on Instagram account Only in Dade, said it was submitted by a worker at the airport who wanted to remain anonymous.

Another video on the account shows the man sitting on the tarmac and receiving water from airport workers.

A non-stop flight from Guatemala City to Miami is about 2½ hours, according to the American Airlines website.

According to the flight tracking website FlightAware.com, American Airlines uses a Boeing 737-800 for its flights from Guatemala City to Miami.

In a statement, the US Federal Aviation Administration said that as at Feb 1, 129 people had attempted to stow away "in the wheel wells or other areas of commercial aircraft" throughout the world since 1947. Of those, 100 "died of injuries or exposure during the flight", the agency said.

In 2014, a 15-year-old boy survived a 5½-hour flight from San Jose in California, to Maui, Hawaii, after he apparently spent most of the flight unconscious in the freezing, low-oxygen wheel storage compartment.

In 2019, the body of a man believed to have fallen from the landing gear compartment of a Kenya Airways flight to Heathrow Airport from Nairobi, Kenya, landed in the backyard of a house in the Clapham area of south-western London, narrowly missing a sunbather.

NYTIMES