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Ethiopian stowaway lands in Dulles - will be sent back home

by Scott Carmichael (RSS feed) on Jun 8th 2009 at 1:30PM

Baggage handlers at Dulles International airport got quite the shock when they noticed a arm sticking out from the bags in the hold of an Ethiopian Airways 767.

The arm belonged to a stowaway, who was naturally suffering from dehydration. For some reason, stowaways are often smart enough to get past airport security, but not smart enough to bring water on board.

The plane had arrived from Addis Ababa and made a stopover in Rome, so the man had been locked in the luggage hold for about 20 hours. He has been transported to a federal holding facility, and will be sent back to Ethiopia after being charged.

Officials were quick to point out that the man was not considered to be a terrorist threat.

Despite the large number of international flights arriving in the US every day, stowaway passengers are still fairly rare, and I'm sure the common misconception that the cargo hold is unpressurized helps scare a lot of would-be stowaways out of the idea. Of course, reading that stowaways are immediately sent back to their homeland also makes the whole idea of hiding in the cargo hold rather unappealing.

Filed under: North America, Ethiopia, United States, Airlines, Airports, News