The mortality rate for people attempting to travel this way is 77%, according to the FAA figures.
I’m surprised it’s not higher
it probably has something to do with how few people have tried this. the article mentions they only know about 132 people who have tried this in the last 70 years. the “true” mortality rate could be a lot higher, and those people just got lucky.
also could be a sampling error, since the article mentions some people fall out of the plane before it lands, which may make the survivors stand out a bit more.
this has got to be a truly terrible way to die and i feel bad for all those people.
In July 2019, the frozen body of a man fell into a garden in a London suburb, believed to have been in the landing gear compartment of a Kenya Airways plane approaching Heathrow airport.
Living under the beginning of an approach into an airport, I’ve thought (just for fun) about the rare instances of hardware falling from the gear. I’d never thought about the chance of a body. I guess they really extend gear earlier than where I am, but I wonder how long it might take, on average, for a body to thaw enough to unstick from something after the gear are down and air is swirling around in there.
With all the vibration and turbulence I wouldn’t think too long.
