Airport Workers Make Grim Discovery Inside Plane

Airport workers made a horrifying discovery after a foul odor coming from a recently arrived passenger jet led them to a decomposing body hidden inside the aircraft’s landing gear.

The grisly find was made Wednesday at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia after the plane landed at around 6:30 a.m. following a flight from Tokyo, Japan.

Staff reportedly noticed an overpowering stench coming from the aircraft’s landing gear compartment and went to investigate.

What they found inside triggered an immediate emergency response.

A decomposing body was wedged inside the plane’s wheel well, and investigators now reportedly believe the person may have been dead for as long as three days.

Airport officials alerted authorities, and forensic investigators were called to the scene as police launched an investigation into how the person ended up aboard the aircraft.

Initial reports indicate the unidentified person was believed to be in their 20s and was wearing a white shirt and jeans.

No identification documents were found with the remains, and authorities had not yet publicly determined the person’s gender.

Because of the advanced state of decomposition, investigators reportedly suspect the person may have climbed into the aircraft’s wheel well during an earlier portion of the plane’s journey rather than in Tokyo immediately before the flight to Malaysia.

Authorities are now attempting to reconstruct the aircraft’s recent travel history while determining exactly where the person boarded and how they died.

Aircraft wheel wells are notoriously deadly hiding places.

Once a plane takes off, anyone concealed inside can be exposed to extremely low temperatures and dangerously thin oxygen at cruising altitude. Stowaways also face the possibility of being crushed when the landing gear retracts or falling from the aircraft when the wheels are lowered before landing.

Many attempts end in death.

The disturbing discovery comes just months after another suspected stowaway was found dead inside the wheel compartment of an Air Arabia jet that traveled from Morocco to London.

That unidentified man was discovered after the Airbus A320 landed at London Gatwick Airport following a June 16 flight from Tangier.

A ground engineer reportedly noticed a packing strap dangling from the wheel compartment and discovered the man’s body while investigating.

Horsham Coroner’s Court later heard that the man suffered a fatal cardiac arrest along with hypoxia — a lack of oxygen — and hypothermia.

Gatwick officials said emergency crews responded shortly after 11:30 a.m. when the incident was discovered following the aircraft’s arrival.

Sussex Police and the coroner subsequently took over the investigation.

A full inquest into that man’s death is scheduled for Feb. 4, 2027.

Meanwhile, investigators in Malaysia are working to identify the latest victim and determine how a body could have remained hidden inside a passenger aircraft for what may have been several days.