STOWAWAYS AND AIRPORT PERIMETER SECURITY:
DESPERATE ACTS BY DESPERATE PEOPLE REVEAL REAL VULNERABILITIES
The act of stowing away in the landing gear compartment of a large passenger aircraft is highly dangerous; not only for the stowaway, but also for the aviation industry. Andrew Gilbey reviews some recent reports of stowaways and their implications for the aviation industry, followed by a brief evaluation of some of the technological applications that may help to secure the vulnerability that stowaways expose.
W
hen they occur, the news media are usually quick to report stories about stowaways; particularly
those who have fallen from aircraft and whose bodies have landed in residential areas beneath the flight paths of airports. Many reading such stories must wonder what could possibly drive a person to attempt such a desperate measure as to stowaway in this manner.
The term ‘stowaway’ generally refers to a person who hides aboard a means of transport, such as aircraft, ship or heavy goods vehicle, with the intention of travelling without paying; although it may also refer to species such as spiders, snakes, and mosquitoes, or even viruses such as measles. Analysts
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believe that many human stowaways are illegal immigrants desperate to seek what they perceive as a better life in another country; in particular, people for whom a legal means of emigrating may be unviable on financial or educational grounds or immigration quotas. It is believed that a large proportion of
aircraft stowaways hide in the landing gear compartment, although they have also hidden in with cargo, like the three men from the Dominican Republic discovered in a DHL warehouse in Miami after tearing their way out of a shrink wrapped pallet, or Charles D. McKinley,
clerk who, wrapped in a box, shipped himself as air cargo from New York to Texas. Stowaways have even managed
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to travel in the passenger compartment, like 12-year-old Rubin Livingstone who flew from Miami to Jamaica in 1st class; 11-year-old Liam Corcoran who flew from Manchester to Rome, both without tickets, boarding passes, or passports; or 33-year-old Trevor Kendall who attempted to hide in an overhead bin on a flight from Toronto to Panama.
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Stowing away in the landing gear compartment of a large airliner is fraught with danger and may lead to fatality at any of the following phases of a flight: the force of wind may cause a stowaway to fall from the undercarriage area as the aircraft takes-off; they may be crushed as the landing gear retracts; die from either hypoxia or hypothermia at altitude,
April 2013 Aviationsecurityinternational
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