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Frozen body found in landing gear @ YYZ

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groundcrewSTL

New member
Joined
Jan 12, 2003
Posts
4
Frozen body found in plane at Toronto airport


Canadian Press

TORONTO — The body of a man was found in an airplane's landing gear early Saturday at Pearson International Airport.

The body of Mariano Herrera-Ba was found frozen in a compartment above the rear landing mechanism of a Skyservice Airbus A320 airplane during a weekly maintenance check, police said.

Identification found on the body showed the man was an aircraft maintenance employee at the Dominican Republic airport in Punta Cana where the flight originated.

Herrera-Ba would have had access to the aircraft compartment where his body was discovered while performing regular maintenance duties for his job, said Const. Harry Tam of the Peel Regional Police.

"We'll continue the investigation to figure out whether he went in their intentionally, or accidentally was left in there when working,'' he said.

Maintenance crews found the frozen body at the Toronto airport around 12:30 a.m. Saturday.

The man, believed to be in his mid-30s, had been reported missing in his home country last Monday. The Skyservice plane had also made a stop at the Punta Cana airport on that day, police said.

Police said it was not clear how long the body had been in the aircraft, or where the plane had travelled in the five days since the man was reported missing.

"It's possible he was already in Canada once and was unable to get out,'' said Tam.

An autopsy was scheduled for Saturday afternoon to determine the time and cause of death.

Police said they do not suspect foul play.

"We're very sad for this incident, that's for sure,'' said Sheryn Posin, Skyservice spokeswoman.

"We feel for this person that was on the aircraft as well as the maintenance crew that did discover him.''

Skyservice operates a fleet of planes used by business customers, air ambulances and several of the largest tour operators in Canada, including Signature, Conquest and Sunquest.

Although the plane was being held by police during the investigation, Posin said she did not expect any flight delays.
 
My question is ... who was doing there walk around ??? I always look deep into the wheel wells when I do mine. I have admit that I have never looked into the well of a scarebus but I would think there all pretty much the same unless this was a totaly enclosed (from the outside) compartment.:eek:
 
A similar situation happened a few years ago, I believe it was in 1997. British Airways 747 from New Delhi to London had two Indian guys in the nose wheel well, one fell out on final approach but the other guy survived! They say since he was wearing really light clothes (one layer cotton) his body went into a coma-state allowing him to survive at -50 celsius at 37000 feet... He reported that someone told him that there was a door connecting the nose wheel well to the cabin... DOH!
 
I believe in the past a couple of cubans did something like this too.
 
This happened to an American Eagle ATR in Punta Cana also. Somebody as I recall hitched a ride in the rear avionics compartment. That is the reason that those compartments are now locked and also why military jeeps escort planes in the Dominican Republic.
 
Pretty common

As a suburban New York cop we had a guy fall from the wheel well of an AA plane in Long Beach NY .Pretty gruesome stuff.
 
Airline Pilot27 said:
This happened to an American Eagle ATR in Punta Cana also. Somebody as I recall hitched a ride in the rear avionics compartment. That is the reason that those compartments are now locked and also why military jeeps escort planes in the Dominican Republic.

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where do you get your info on the military jeeps in the DR? i've heard otherwise.

skepticalcfi
 
With the gear doors closed, it is very hard to see all the way into the A320 wheel wells. I always try my best during walk-arounds to look as deeply as possible into the well, but it really isn't possible -- unless I were to perhaps climb onto the tire or up the strut.

This seems to happen every few years. The last time I heard about it happening, it was about 2 or 3 years ago years ago on a US Airways 767 from LGW to PIT, I think.
 
starvingcfi said:
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where do you get your info on the military jeeps in the DR? i've heard otherwise.

skepticalcfi

I was an instructor on the ATR for Eagle and I was told the exact same thing. We call the aft avionics bay "Dominican First Class"
 
Years ago when flying DC-8 freighters down in S. America we on occasion would get a belly door light during our taxi out to the runway. Sometimes the light would come on then go out.We would return to the ramp to investigate the light or continue on to MIA where we would report it to the Feds prior to arrival. Customs and the DEA would meet us and
on occasion would find drugs. Never happened to me but I have heard of them finding the odd hitch hiker. It became most freight operators policy to pad lock the bellys.
 
Loafman said:
I was an instructor on the ATR for Eagle and I was told the exact same thing. We call the aft avionics bay "Dominican First Class"

Jeez, you beat me to it. Jeff Nelson, my ATR initial instructor at Eagle and an Executive Airlines pilot, constantly refered to the ATR's hell hole as 'the Dominican First - Class section".

I preflight the living sh*t out of the 737-800 main gear well, since there is an area aft of the flap extension mechanism that looks prime for unauthorized non-rev travel access.
 
same type of thing happend to a CAL dc-10 in EWR 3-4 years back. Cant remember the details but the guy fell out on final(or maybe departure) and landed in a parking lot.
 

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