The Hawaii Police are investigating the discovery of a body in the tire compartment of a United Airlines plane that flew from Chicago to Maui on Christmas Eve, the airline and the police department reported in statements on Wednesday.
The airline confirmed to CNN that after the plane arrived at Kahului Airport in Maui on Tuesday afternoon, their staff found the lifeless body in "one of the main landing gears" of the Boeing 787-10.
Access to that compartment is only possible from outside the plane, United added. The investigation is ongoing to determine how and where the stowaway boarded the compartment. The identity, gender, or possible age of the victim has not been disclosed.
United Airlines Flight 202 took off from O'Hare Airport in Chicago on the morning of December 24.
The plane had arrived in Chicago from Sao Paulo (Brazil) and was at O'Hare Airport for about four hours before flying to Hawaii, according to the flight tracking website Flight Aware.
This incident adds to that of an American stowaway who managed to pass at least two security checks at the airport and board a flight from New York to Paris without a ticket, during one of the busiest times of the year and days before Thanksgiving.
The woman managed to board Delta Flight 264 that departed from John F. Kennedy Airport in New York and landed at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris on November 27.
She was discovered by flight attendants who checked the passenger manifest when the plane was already in the air.