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Tag: stowaway

  • Stowaway found dead in landing gear of an American Airline flight at CLT

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    American Airlines airplanes taxi along at Charlotte Douglas International Airport.

    American Airlines airplanes taxi along at Charlotte Douglas International Airport.


    David T. Foster III

    CHARLOTTE OBSERVER FILE PHOTO

    Charlotte police are investigating the death of a stowaway found inside the landing gear of an American Airline plane at Charlotte Douglas Airport that recently arrived from Europe.

    Crews from the airline on Sunday morning were doing maintaince on the aircraft near the 5000 block of Hangar Road.

    Shortly after 9 a.m., they made a gruesome discovery of a body inside the landing gear. The person was pronounced deceased on scene by Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s Police Deparment’s Airport Division officers.

    Homicide detectives responded to the scene and Crime Scene Search also responded to collect physical evidence. Representatives from CMPD’s Operations Command and MEDIC also assisted.

    The investigation continues. As more information develops, it will be released by the CMPD’s Public Affairs Office.

    Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call 704-432-8477 (TIPS) and speak directly to a Homicide Unit detective.

    The public can also leave information anonymously by contacting Crime Stoppers at 704-334-1600 or Charlotte Crime Stoppers. For additional information about this case, please refer to the report: 20250928-0936-01.

    This story was originally published September 28, 2025 at 2:33 PM.

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    Lisa Vernon Sparks

    The Charlotte Observer

    Lisa Vernon Sparks is the Race, Culture and Community Engagement Editor for The Charlotte Observer. Previously she was an Opinion Editor with the Richmond Times-Dispatch in Virginia. Her award-winning career has netted bylines in Virginia, Rhode Island, New Jersey and her native New York. She is an alumna of Columbia University in New York and Northeastern University in Boston.
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  • LAX’s Russian mystery man convicted for hopping flight without passport, ticket

    LAX’s Russian mystery man convicted for hopping flight without passport, ticket

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    A Russian man who slipped past Danish airport security to board a flight to Los Angeles International Airport without a passport, visa or ticket was found guilty of being a stowaway, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday.

    After a three-day trial, 46-year-old Sergey Vladimirovich Ochigava was found guilty of one count of being a stowaway on an aircraft.

    He faces a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison and is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 5.

    Authorities say Ochigava slipped aboard a flight to Los Angeles on Nov. 4 after passing through a Copenhagen Airport boarding gate undetected.

    He had been able to get into the airport terminal without a boarding pass a day earlier after tailgating an unsuspecting passenger through a security turnstile, prosecutors said.

    During the more than 12-hour flight aboard Scandinavian Airlines Flight 931, Ochigava constantly shifted seats, spoke to several passengers, asked for two in-flight meals and tried to snack on a cabin crew member’s chocolate bar, according to court documents filed by federal prosecutors.

    Upon arrival at LAX, Customs and Border Protection officers stopped Ochigava at an immigration checkpoint, and were unable to find him on the manifest of that flight or any other incoming international flights, court documents said.

    Ochigava was unable to produce a passport, visa or other travel documents that would allow him entrance into the country, according to the Department of Justice. When questioned, authorities say, he provided false and misleading information about his journey to the United States, including claiming he had left his passport on the plane.

    Russian and Israeli identification cards were found in his possession when police searched his bag, according to court documents.

    Additional details as to the motivation behind Ochigava’s journey were not immediately available.

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    Anthony De Leon

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