American Airlines Stowaway Was Dead for Four Days

American Airlines Stowaway Was Dead for Four Days
Jamaica Observer, Jamaica 

Sunday, December 28, 2003

The body found in the wheel-well of an American Airlines jet that arrived in 
New York from Montego Bay on Christmas Eve was dead for at least four days, 
according to the Leonor Lozano, the head of the company that operates Montego 
Bay's Sangster Airport.

There were concerns over the possibility of a security breach at Sangster when 
the body was discovered during a routine inspection by American Airline's 
mechanics at New York's Kennedy airport hours after the A300 Airbus jet flew in 
from Jamaica.

But said Lozano: "My information from my New York contact is that the body was 
already confirmed dead for four days when it arrived in New York.

"It could not possibly have come from Sangster as the plane only spent one hour 
in Montego Bay. It did not overnight in the Montego Bay airport. The plane only 
spent one hour there."

Officials from neither American Airlines nor the New York and New Jersey Port 
Authority, which runs the Kennedy Airport, could be contacted for comment late 
yesterday.

However, an American spokesman, Carlo Bertoloni had on Friday confirmed that 
the plane had undergone its last overnight inspection in the Dominican Republic 
four days earlier - the port at which Jamaican officials had been insinuating 
that the apparent stowaway sneaked aboard the plane.

"My information also is that the plane came from the Dominican Republic, so I 
don't know where the body came from," Lozano said. "I don't know what 
nationality it is."

A New York Port Authority spokesman Dan Maynard had described the body as a 
"black or black Hispanic" male about 25.

The Port Authority police were investigating the incident, Maynard said.

Notwithstanding the indication that any breach of security did not occur in 
Jamaica, security officials here indicated that a review of security at the 
island's two international airports - Sangster and Norman Manley in Kingston - 
could take place.

Security concerns over the incident have been acute because of fears that the 
al-Qaeda terrorist network might be planning an attack on American targets, 
using airplanes.

Earlier last week, Air France grounded its flights from Paris to Los Angeles 
after intelligence reports suggested that something untoward could happen 
aboard its aircraft.

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