Another plane stowaway? Here's why you shouldn't worry (too much) about them.

Show Caption

There have been multiple reports of people discovered stowed away in airplane wheel wells over the past few weeks and others who somehow bypassed boarding pass scans and made it into the passenger cabin without valid tickets.

Such incidents are extremely rare, so it's unusual to see several so close together, and travelers may be left wondering if there are cracks in the aviation safety system.

Experts say each situation is unique, and stakeholders will investigate how to address any security lapses, but overall the feeling is that the incidents pose no real threat to the flying public.

What breaches have happened?

Since late November, at least four high-profile security breaches of commercial aircraft have been reported. Two involved stowaways hiding in a plane's wheel well, and two involved passengers boarding without proper documents.

• A woman boarded a Delta Air Lines flight from New York to Paris during the Thanksgiving travel rush.
• An unticketed passenger was removed from a Delta Air Lines flight before it left Seattle for Honolulu on Christmas Eve.
• A body was found in the wheel well of a United Airlines plane that landed in Hawaii from Chicago on Christmas Eve.
• Two bodies were found in the wheel well of a JetBlue Airways plane after it landed in Fort Lauderdale from New York on Monday.

What experts say

Though experts say the incidents are disturbing, they emphasize they are also unusual.

"It’s very dramatic when it happens, but statistically, it’s incredibly rare," Daniel Cutrer, associate professor of Homeland Security and associate chair of security studies and international affairs at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, told Paste BN.

He said that since 1947, there have been fewer than 150 documented incidents of wheel-well stowaways, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, and those incidents had a 76% fatality rate.

Shawn Pruchnicki, an assistant professor and human performance specialist at the Center for Aviation Studies at The Ohio State University, told Paste BN that recent high-profile incidents might not even represent an actual increase in stowaways.

"I don’t think we fully understand why there appears to be an increase. One of the things we need to be mindful of is, with everyone having access to cellphones and iPhones and so forth, it’s a lot easier for this information to get out much quicker," he said. "In the past, airlines were able to hold this information much closer to their chest than they are now."

Pruchnicki and Cutrer said airlines and airports handle these incidents case by case.

"Stowaways in wheel wells and whatnot, that’s a physical security issue," Cutrer said. “It’s very hard to patrol every square inch of a fence 24 hours a day." He added that most people who manage to breach an airport's secure perimeter are arrested and charged with trespassing.

Aviation fact check: Flying is extremely safe despite hazards like bird strikes, turbulence and severe weather

As for breaches in which a person makes it into the passenger cabin without documentation, Pruchnicki said, we don't always know exactly how it happens.

"Each individual airport has its own unique problems on how that’s able to happen," he said. "What has not been released is how people have been able to do this."

Members of the public may never know for sure exactly how such breaches occur, especially if they involve lapses at Transportation Security Administration checkpoints, because the relevant agencies don't want to broadcast their vulnerabilities.

Are airplanes still secure?

Pruchnicki and Cutrer said flying remains safe, and there are no major known threats to passenger safety or security.

"The only impact to passengers is inconvenience," Cutrer said. "The folks that hide away in the wheel well of an aircraft, they’re incredibly desperate to get away from the life they’re in," but they're not usually trying to hurt anyone.

Pruchnicki said the industry remains vigilant, however.

"For the cases that we’ve seen, these are people that are just trying to get a free ride, either inside the airplane or outside the airplane," Pruchnicki said. "I suppose it’s possible that someone could have a more nefarious take on this, which would potentially have a safety implication, but that’s something that we’ve never seen in the industry."

He and Cutrer emphasized that passengers should remain alert and notify airport authorities if anything on their journey seems amiss.

Zach Wichter is a travel reporter for Paste BN based in New York. You can reach him at zwichter@usatoday.com.