Airline finds two bodies in plane’s landing gear in Colombia

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Two bodies were found on the landing gear of an Avianca plane undergoing maintenance in the Colombian capital, the airline said on Saturday (7). According to the company, they were discovered the night before, after the aircraft landed at El Dorado airport in Bogota.

The Attorney General of the Colombian Republic stated that the victims are men of African descent between the ages of 15 and 20, possibly from the Dominican Republic – although no identification documents were found, one of them was carrying money from the Caribbean country, and a suitcase was found with the pair also contained documents from that nation.

Investigations by the agency indicate that the men may have been on the plane since January 3, when the aircraft was last in the Dominican Republic. Its last regular maintenance was on December 27th, and since then it has passed through Guarulhos, which is home to São Paulo’s international airport, and Santiago, Chile.

Avianca expressed its condolences to the families of the two young people, and added that although it inspects aircraft before each flight, the security of restricted areas at airports is the responsibility of each State.

Individuals attempting to travel on aircraft landing gear are exposed to severe risks. These include being crushed when the compartment retracts; freeze to death; lose your hearing; and acidosis—a buildup of acid in body fluids that can lead to death.

In 2021, a stowaway hidden in the landing gear compartment of an American Airlines jet survived a two-and-a-half-hour flight from Guatemala City to Miami, in the United States. After landing, the man was handed over to US immigration officials and taken to a hospital for medical evaluation.

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