Officials left stumped after body is found in plane's landing gear compartment

A plane that had flown out of Chicago and landed in Hawaii on Christmas Eve had a corpse in the landing gear compartment.

On Tuesday (December 24), a body was discovered in the 'wheel well of the main landing gears' of an aircraft belonging to United Airlines which has left officials stumped.

Flight UA202 set off from Chicago O'Hare International Airport at 9.31pm Eastern Time and landed at the Kahului Airport, in Maui, at 2.21pm Hawaii Standard Time - meaning it took eight hours and 41 minutes in total to reach its destination.

In a statement issued to CNN, United Airlines said: “Upon arrival at Kahului airport in Maui on Tuesday, a body was found in the wheel well of one of the main landing gears on a United aircraft.

"The wheel well was only accessible from outside of the aircraft.”

It is not yet known how the individual managed to climb inside the plane or when they managed to access the landing gear compartment although Maui Police Department is investigating the incident.

A spokesperson for the force told local news outlet Hawaii News Now: "The Maui Police Department is currently conducting an active investigation regarding a deceased individual discovered on an incoming flight from the mainland this afternoon.

"At this time, no further details are available.”

While hiding in a wheel well of a plane is not something you or I would do, it is a common way of transportation for stowaways but it can be fatal.

Last year, we heard of the man who survived a two-and-a-half hour flight from Algeria to France, on December 29. He was found in a critical condition, more specifically he had hypothermia, and was subsequently rushed to hospital by French authorities.

While in the air, stowaways must battle temperatures as low as -81°F, meaning they often develop hypoxia and hyperthermia, then of course there's the lack of oxygen - all depending on if they not crushed when the wheels are retracted in after take off.

Then there's the landing gear compartment opening up. Simple flying writes: "Another significant risk involves the possibility of stowaways falling from the plane’s wheel well before it reaches its destination. Typically, the landing gear is deployed at an altitude of around 1,500 feet, leaving stowaways with very little advance notice."

The most common reason stowaways catch free rides on aircrafts is to seek asylum, although the circumstances are not yet known as to why the person who climbed aboard the flight from Chicago to Maui.