Suicide mission latest
Why stowaway died – Experts
•Delta Airlines speak
By UCHE USIM
Saturday, April 24, 2010
• Photo: The Sun Publishing
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Aviation experts have described the recent incident involving the late Emeka Okechukwu Okeke, as reported by Saturday Sun lat Saturday, who committed suicide in his desperate attempt to enter the United States via the nosewheel compartment of Delta Air’s B777, as the handiwork of crooks who might have dispossessed the ignorant man of all his worth and thereafter lured him to death.
As a result of the incident, a high level investigation is ongoing to ascertain how the stowaway and his cohorts were able to beat the heightened airport security to gain access to the airplane on the tarmac.

Delta Air’s B777 airplane, Saturday Sun learnt, is fortified with extra security personnel due to the recent security threats in Nigeria.
A source from the airline, who spoke with Saturday Sun on phone, said the police are investigating the matter at a very high level.

“The matter is under investigation and we cannot say much on it. The more you talk about the matter, the more it may scorch the investigation. It’s a security matter and we have to treat it carefully,” the Delta Airline source stated.

In analysing the incident, experts say the temperature in the nosewheel, also known as the main landing gear is extremely cold (minus 58 degrees) during flight such that it is almost impossible to survive there for up to 12 hours, which is the average duration of Lagos-Atlanta flight. Though the stowaway was said to be well kitted with thick sweaters, in addition to a blanket, analysts still insist that the discomfort in that area is killing and most times the victims die of hyperthermia.

The coldness apart, the area is not climate controlled or pressurized and it also takes well grounded aircraft engineers and dispatchers to know the depth of the nosewheel’s well (where the main landing gear retracts into) to ascertain where it can accommodate the stowaway or not.
More so, stowaways hardly survive and they risk being crushed by the gear or bay doors if the bay is not large enough for the stowaway.

They can also fall off the strut, especially when it is extended after takeoff or before touchdown. This is often exacerbated by the force of the wind.

Stowaways also risk falling out of the bay should the doors open unexpectedly. This can be caused if the door mechanism cannot support the weight of the stowaway. Also, the stowaway may be asleep or unconscious when the gear is lowered for landing.

Some other analysts also explain that for the deadly operation to be somewhat successful, the engineers will know the precise location the stowaway will be in the nosewheel well, the precise angle he must position himself, regardless of the discomfort.

More so, it must be predetermined whether that area will have oxygen or not to avoid suffocation.
All these equations must be balanced before placing the illegal “traveller” in the main landing gear compartment as any miscalculation means the man will be automatically crushed when the nosewheel is retracting after takeoff.

In the case of Okeke, analysts believe the collaborators were mere ramp/tarmac workers who are not aircraft engineers.

The position is buttressed by that fact that Okeke, who allegedly departed Lagos alive, arrived the USA as a lifeless being with his remains mangled.
According to a seasoned B747-400 pilot and former Operations Director of defunct Nigeria Airways Limited (NAL), Capt Dele Ore, stowaways usually hide in electronic bay, a spacious but sensitive section of the airplane.

Ore said the temperature in that area is conducive for humans, stressing that most of the stowaways hid there hours before boarding.

“Stowaways usually hide in the areas we call the electronic bay. They gain access to that place at times via the nosewheel compartment. That usually happens some hours before pre-boarding internal and external checks. The checks hardly extend to the electronic bay. It’s usually external since they just look into the landing gear well and other external sections. Stowaways also get in when the airplane is parked remotely, especially when the terminal is congested. So while at the remote parking, the stowaway is sneaked before the airplane is positioned for boarding,” he said.

Describing the action as bad, Ore said most people have lost their lives in a bid to hide in the nosewheel compartment.

Also commenting on the incident, Olumide Ohunayo, an aviation analyst and former President of National Cabin Crew Association of Nigeria (NACCAN), said his collaborators are within the tarmac and the security personnel, stressing that they were ignorant of the workings of the airplane.

“Stowaways are usually people who are ignorant of the technology and the conditions in the plane, and they tend to be pretty desperate to achieve their self desires. If a stowaway can get into the aircraft, whenever that occurred, that says a lot about security procedures of that airport and airline; also the tarmac area and the maintenance inspection procedures. With recent heightened security, a stowaway simply tells us that if you can do it with a body, you could do it with an explosive.

Pilot and other personnel conduct aircraft checks for international trips as many as two hours before takeoff, raising the prospect that the stowaway climbed aboard after the landing gear was examined on the ground, therefore, the collaborators are within the airside of the airport. The stowaways are completely ignorant of the risk being taken, because temperatures in wheel-wells during short flights may sustain life, on Long flights that lead to severe hypothermia and acute hypoxia which is potentially fatal,” he explained.
He further said stowaways, generally pose no security threat to aircraft, but the fact that they have been able to gain access to planes means there are loopholes in security around aircraft and airport perimeters, which can be blocked.

“It is generally agreed that airports and airlines are to blame for security breaches, which probably is the reason airlines are fined heavily by immigration or other government agencies for stowaways on board. The airlines are made to foot all related bills such as medical, feeding, transportation and other fines. It is not a Nigerian problem but a universal one, so our airlines operating international flights in conjunction with departing airports must overhaul their security and conduct background checks on airside employees,” he stated.

For Sam Akerele, a former Airport/Airspace Manager who also doubles as an aviation consultant; whoever tells any man/woman to be a stowaway passenger in the nosewheel of an airplane is a killer.
“Stowaway deals usually end in tragedy. It’s only desperate fools that choose that travelling option. And those who want to make money off the fools perpetrate it. It’s even a security risk as well because it shows porosity in the airport security network. What if the stowaway is a terrorist? He can comfortably bomb the plane mid air. Wherever it occurs, it is an indictment on any country’s national security. It’s a thing government must carefully look into,” he said.

Unauthorized passengers have been known to stowaway on larger aircraft by climbing a landing gear strut and riding within the compartment.

Stowaway incidents are not new in aviation, in February, a man suspected to be Japanese mechanic was found dead in the nosewheel compartment of Delta Air B777 airplane.
Another man was also found dead in Tokyo Airport on arrival from the US. He was actually frozen to death.
However, on October 12, 2007 , a Palestine stowaway was lucky as he survived a 55-minute SIA flight on B777-200 airplane.

No formal report to the Police
The Delta Air’s incident, according to the Commissioner of Police, Airport Police Command, Danazumi Doma, was not reported to the command formally by the airline’s management.
“What you have been asking me for days now is new. There’s no formal report from the airline and as such we cannot say we’re investigating it. I don’t have the contact to the man’s family as you’re requesting. Nothing on it at all. I believe the airline should write to us on such an issue,” he said.

Security implication
Analysts say the security apparatus at the MMIA must be urgently overhauled if sustainable success is to be achieved.

They also say that a man who successfully sneaks into an airplane can equally wreak havoc undetected by planting explosives inside the airplane or the airport building.
Already, there are speculations that a certain syndicate operate in the airport as protocol officers and assist some highly placed individuals in smuggling prohibited items on board the plane. They are also said to work for individuals who can afford their charges.

So sad, so sad, i hope he rests in the lord