stowaway from Guatemala discovered alive in landing gear well
#16
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Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Phoenix, AZ
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How do you know?? If he survive. He can barely breathing. He could fall in the sea. He won’t be alive. He could die. There is no oxygen in the landing gear wheel. That’s for sure! He could freeze to death. There is no life.
#17
Join Date: Aug 1999
Location: Australia
Posts: 2,811
I have not checked all the media stories but the assumption is that the a/c flew above 30,000 feet - well and truly in the hypoxic zone .
Is this a correct assumption ?
Maybe the a/c flew much lower than that though the flight would have been round 1000 odd miles.
People have survived at high altitudes - for example , people have climbed Mt Everest ( 29, 000 feet ) without additional oxygen - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinhold_Messner
The other issue may be that this man had lived for a long time in an elevated region where oxygen levels were low and he was acclimatised.
Did he smuggle an oxygen cylinder into the wheel chamber with him ?
Is this a correct assumption ?
Maybe the a/c flew much lower than that though the flight would have been round 1000 odd miles.
People have survived at high altitudes - for example , people have climbed Mt Everest ( 29, 000 feet ) without additional oxygen - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinhold_Messner
The other issue may be that this man had lived for a long time in an elevated region where oxygen levels were low and he was acclimatised.
Did he smuggle an oxygen cylinder into the wheel chamber with him ?
#19
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I believe that HAV-MAD holds the distinction of longest flight by a wheel well stowaway who survived. Honorable mention to PPT-LAX?
#20
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https://flightaware.com/live/flight/...226Z/MGGT/KMIA
#22
Join Date: May 2017
Posts: 2,267
True yes the low oxygen levels are worrisome, but benefiting them is the cold temperatures associated with higher altitudes. Cold slows the metabolic rate of the body and thus the demand for oxygen by your cells, lengthening the time they can go without suffering irreparable damage. There's a saying in medicine that you aren't dead until you're warm and dead for precisely this reason, and this also explains why people with prolonged cold water drownings can still end up surviving. Stowing away in a non-pressurized portion of the aircraft is very similar physiologically to a cold water drowning: hypoxia + cold.
#23
Join Date: Feb 2020
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While he was fortunate to survive and I have endless crass cracks about AA's deplorable product, that someone's situation was so miserable to have been driven to expose oneself to the lack of oxygen, pressurization extremes, frigid temperatures, potential gear crush, and fall risk just for a chance at something better is a terrible reflection on the world today.