The body of a man whom investigators believe may have been a stowaway was found in one of the landing gear compartments of a plane in Tokyo. Last night a mechanic found the man's body while performing maintenance on the Boeing 777-200; the plane had originated in New York as Delta Flight 59. There's little information about the dead man, who has been identified only as a 5'7" male with dark skin, clothed in a long-sleeved plaid shirt and jeans. The area he was found in is inaccessible from the inside of the plane, and does not have any air conditioning or pressurization.
The temperature in that part of the plane falls to about minus 58 degrees Fahrenheit during flight. Investigators say the corpse had no signs of injury other than frostbite, and the preliminary assumption is that he died of hypothermia. "All we know is that he must have sneaked in just before departure, because it is impossible for him to enter the storage during flight," police official Zenjiro Watanabe tells the AP. "It's quite bizarre. I've never handled a case like this before."
