Boy hides in commercial flight wheel well; rides from NC to CT before falling

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/11/us/11plane.html

by frisco • 16 years ago

16 7 16 years ago

You don't just fall straight down. Aside from air resistance, you will keep the horizontal velocity that the aircraft had when he fell.

The kid must have been quite a projectile.

lkoujhghjk• 16 years ago

Does that mean we are now going to get searched for any teenage boys hidden about our person?

DanielBMarkham• 16 years ago

That kid was dead within 15 minutes of the plane leaving Charlotte. If the hypoxia didn't kill him quickly, the cold certainly would have. And then there is the hydraulics of the wheels themselves. It's just an insane thing to do.

Seems like anybody with half a brain would have known that this was suicidal, especially after the Payne Stewart crash http://www.airsafe.com/stewart.htm

Very sad story.

fmkamchatka• 16 years ago

"The cold certainly would have" This is not necessarily true.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1285231/Stowaway-sur...

mikey_p• 16 years ago

While it is fatal more often than not, survivors are not uncommon: http://www.slate.com/id/2093341/

tzm• 16 years ago

text only: http://viewtext.org/article?url=http://www.nytimes.com/2010/...

J3L2404• 16 years ago

Why does the title say CT? Are they implying he continued on momentum to Milton, MA? My gorilla math says yes.

Terminal velocity of 200 mph from 30k ft is ~ 6 min fall x 500mph plane speed = 50 miles max (w/o wind resistance)

EDIT: NE corner of CT to Milton is about 40mi so its borderline - Also the NYT title doesn't say CT

Boy hides in commercial flight wheel well; rides from NC to CT before falling

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