DA: Teen found near Boston likely fell from plane

[Jumping John]

Source: Associated Press

By JAY LINDSAY, Associated Press – 18 mins ago
BOSTON – A North Carolina teen whose mutilated body was found in a Boston suburb likely fell from the sky after stowing away in an airplane wheel well, a Massachusetts prosecutor said Friday.

Norfolk District Attorney William Keating said police searched the area Friday in Milton where the body of Delvonte Tisdale, 16, was found last month, and they found sneakers and a shirt matching clothing Tisdale's family said he'd worn.

The items were found along a path a Boston-bound plane would have taken while approaching the city, he said.

Authorities decided to go public with their evidence that Tisdale was a stowaway because the apparent breach of airport security was such a serious public safety issue, Keating said. He said he'd informed the TSA, and expected them to thoroughly investigate.

"It's a terrible tragedy what happened to this young man," Keating said. "But if that was someone with a different motive, if that was a terrorist, that could be a bomb planted on there undetected."

Tisdale's body was found by a group of college students less than 24 hours after he was last seen in Charlotte, N.C.

Tisdale was a member of the Air Force ROTC program at North Mecklenburg High School near Charlotte. His father, Anthony, said the family had moved from Greensboro to Charlotte in the summer just so the teen could join that program. Anthony Tisdale said his son was happy in Charlotte and stayed out of trouble.





Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101211/ap_on_re_us/us_mutilated_body;_ylt=AoXs4ZB0iZI5NReUkk27qvWs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTFlZjZpNjBwBHBvcwM2NQRzZWMDYWNjb3JkaW9uX3Vfc19uZXdzBHNsawNkYXRlZW5mb3VuZG4-

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Air port security? I guess it is only for paying customers. It will be interesting to see TSA's timely respnse.

[stray cat]

1. You forget that you are against airport security?

[LisaL]

20. Did TSA stop him from getting on the plane?

[valerief]

2. "If we could have felt him up, we could have stopped him." nt

[pam4water]

13. I'm laughing and crying at the same time!

[laylah]

3. Yeah...

he was ecstatic. :sarcasm:

[laconicsax]

4. Breaking: TSA Unveils Giant Robot Designed to Pat-Down Airplanes.

Story developing...

[smiley]

5. proof

that if a terrorist wants to get near a plane - then they very well can get to the plane, and all this security theater is exactly that - theater... but very lucrative theater.

[MrsBrady]

6. if he was in the wheel well, i don't think he would have been "on", meaning "inside" the plane

he would have had to somehow been able to get into the wheel well while it was at the gate or waiting on the runway.

That's what I'm thinking.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

7. There is no "below the wing" security

Getting airside at just about any airport is about as difficult as wandering through an FBO and out the back door. At some airports these unsecured FBO's are mere feet from the main terminal. When the new terminal at John Wayne Airport is finished the gates will be less than 500 feet away from the general aviation area. The last private flight I was on the only "security" was a bored looking teenager sitting at a desk by the back door surfing facebook. And they were not security - they were just there to point people at the right plane parked outside.

[TheCowsCameHome]

8. That makes me feel nice and secure

Some skinny kid can sneak onto an airplane while elderly grandmothers with walkers ane getting patted down in boarding lines.

Security, my foot.

[slackmaster]

9. Yeah, the kid might have been carrying nail clippers or a Swiss Army knife

Or eight ounces of hair conditioner.

[TheCowsCameHome]

11. ....or who knows what else,

if he was so inclined.

[LisaL]

31. Yep, TSA scans and pat downs passengers with tickets,

including little kids and elderly grandmas. What is all this x-ray scanning and patting down good for if someone without a ticket can get to the plane?

[pettypace]

10. What does a body look like after falling from a plane?

I suspect the trauma would be drastically different than if the body had been beaten as was originally suspected.

Anyone know?

[TheCowsCameHome]

12. This kid was described as mangled in police accounts up here

Just one of the descriptions I heard.

Wasn't pretty, I'm sure.

[HubertHeaver]

14. There is no extra room in the aircraft wheelwell. The body

would have been crushed or "squished" yielding the mangled appearance.

[Devil_Fish]

16. even if there was room, there is no O2 over 12K Feet, and it's very cold.

[panzerfaust]

25. Fact: Plenty of Oxygen at 12K feet

Highest cities in the world:

La Rinoconada, Peru 5100 meters, 16,728 feet

El Alto, Bolivia 4150 meters, 13,615 feet

Lhasa, Tibet 3650 meters, 12,002 feet

Even the FAA does not require use of oxygen at 12,000 (though it would be a good idea, and I use it whenever above 7000)

Federal Aviation Regulations Sec. 91.211 — Supplemental oxygen.
(a) General. No person may operate a civil aircraft of U.S. registry—

(1) At cabin pressure altitudes above 12,500 feet (MSL) up to and including 14,000 feet (MSL) unless the required minimum flight crew is provided with and uses supplemental oxygen for that part of the flight at those altitudes that is of more than 30 minutes duration;

(2) At cabin pressure altitudes above 14,000 feet (MSL) unless the required minimum flight crew is provided with and uses supplemental oxygen during the entire flight time at those altitudes; and

(3) At cabin pressure altitudes above 15,000 feet (MSL) unless each occupant of the aircraft is provided with supplemental oxygen.

(b) Pressurized cabin aircraft. (1) No person may operate a civil aircraft of U.S. registry with a pressurized cabin—

(i) At flight altitudes above flight level 250 unless at least a 10-minute supply of supplemental oxygen, in addition to any oxygen required to satisfy paragraph (a) of this section, is available for each occupant of the aircraft for use in the event that a descent is necessitated by loss of cabin pressurization; and

(ii) At flight altitudes above flight level 350 unless one pilot at the controls of the airplane is wearing and using an oxygen mask that is secured and sealed and that either supplies oxygen at all times or automatically supplies oxygen whenever the cabin pressure altitude of the airplane exceeds 14,000 feet (MSL), except that the one pilot need not wear and use an oxygen mask while at or below flight level 410 if there are two pilots at the controls and each pilot has a quick-donning type of oxygen mask that can be placed on the face with one hand from the ready position within 5 seconds, supplying oxygen and properly secured and sealed.

(2) Notwithstanding paragraph (b)(1)(ii) of this section, if for any reason at any time it is necessary for one pilot to leave the controls of the aircraft when operating at flight altitudes above flight level 350, the remaining pilot at the controls shall put on and use an oxygen mask until the other pilot has returned to that crewmember's station.

[TheCowsCameHome]

26. OK, what's the temperature?

Low enough to kill, I'll bet.

They found a plastic item near his body the had evidence of being frozen.

[petronius]

37. A typical air temperature at 12,000 would be ~16F

Definitely a dangerous temperature, especially if you're already injured by being crushed in a wheel-well.

The well itself could be a little warmer I suppose; I don't know what sources of heat exist on an aircraft outside the cabin. Hydraulic lines might be warm, for instance...

[RSillsbee]

29. Bullshit

There are 59 peaks in Colorado that are over 14000 feet no O2 is required to climb any of them. there are no trees over 12000 feet but there is oxygen

[daleo]

19. There have been plenty of wheelwell stowaway reports

Some have even survived.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stowaway#By_air

[LisaL]

22. Yep, not everyone dies.

Recently there was a kid that made it alive. Boggles the mind.

[Rozlee]

17. I was told second hand that he'd asphixiated first.

A relative of mine told me that it was suspected that he'd run out of air and frozen. That would only have happened at a really high altitude. If that's true, I guess that would mean that he would have fallen from a really high distance. Really ghastly whatever the circumstances. Poor kid.

[RaleighNCDUer]

23. He would have only fallen when the landing gear was lowered just

before landing - maybe a couple thousand feet, likely less. Not far, when you consider that he died at 12,000+.

[forty6]

27. He was probably dead or unconscious by the time of the fall, but

even if the plane were at 1000 feet, (probably more 4 - 6 miles out of the airport), it would be like falling from the top of Empire State building, not fun!

[FailureToCommunicate]

15. Just when you think you've heard the worst news, his family gets

these details. My heart goes out to them, where ever they are.

[Blue_Tires]

18. IF this is true, then I've got like a thousand questions...

The first 800 questions would be for CLT security...

And what would make the kid want to try something like that anyway?? If he's seriously savvy enough to plan this stunt, then he has to be halfway intelligent enough to know this thing only works in movies...If by some miracle you aren't crushed/frozen/suffocated to death, then you have to try and survive the landing...

EDIT: another story says he hated living in N.C. and wanted to go back to Baltimore -- He couldn't have taken Greyhound or hitchhiked? It's not like he's trying to leave North Korea for Australia or something...

[LisaL]

21. Believe it or not this kid isn't the only one to have this idea.

[Recursion]

24. There have been 63 known wheel-well stowaways in the past 6 years

Of whom 12 have survived. That's astounding.

[forty6]

28. On average, the temperatures drop about 5 degrees for every 1000 feet.

"In the troposphere (the first 4 km or 36,000 feet), and in a non-temperature inversion situation, the temperature drops about 6.5 °C for every 1 km increase in altitude, or approximately 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit per 1000 feet."

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_much_does_temperature_drop_with_altitude#ixzz17oeJLA2g

[petronius]

35. More like 3.5 F degrees per 1000 feet (nt)

[RSillsbee]

30. Stupid should hurt

and in his case it did

[happi1]

32. TSA to investigate stowaway

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/12/11/1901385/mass-police-conduct-new-search.html

[crikkett]

33. comparing a boy to a bomb is the only reason to go public w/ info?

meh.
:argh:

[forty6]

34. well, yeah, the people in the Boston area are all over this story

Seems as tho there could be better security at airports. That's the message as well as the tragic one.

[coffeenap]

36. Bullying victim? Hazing incident gone awry? nt

[LisaL]

39. What? There is nothing to suggest anything of the sort.

[goforit]

38. Bizzare