Identity released for body found in Charlotte plane’s landing gear, CMPD says

The body that mysteriously turned up in the landing gear of a plane at Charlotte Douglas International Airport has been identified as a 25-year-old originally from Guatemala, according to investigators.

A cause of death for Jose Joaquin De Leon Santiz has not been released.

“The victim’s next of kin has been notified by the Guatemalan Consulate,” Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said in a news release.

The body was discovered around 9 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 28, while a crew was “performing maintenance on an American Airlines plane that had recently arrived from Europe,” CMPD said.

Santiz was pronounced dead at the scene by CMPD’s Airport Division officers.

The plane’s schedule included stops in Charlotte, Madrid, Spain, and Frankfurt, Germany, WSOC reports.

Wheel wells are a common spot for stowaways to enter airplanes, and nearly 80% don’t survive the flight, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

“Usually, a stowaway jumps into an aircraft by hanging on to the airliner’s landing gear as the plane takes off, and the force of the wind can easily make a stowaway fall to his death,” FAA Research & Development reports.

“Because people flying on aircraft as stowaways must stay within the landing gear area, they face other risks too, such as being crushed in a confined space when the gears retract, falling when the plane is landing, or dying from the heat produced by the engines of the aircraft. Death from hypothermia, caused by the extreme cold at high altitudes, or hypoxia (inadequate oxygen supply to the tissues), has also been documented.”

This story was originally published October 12, 2025 at 5:38 AM with the headline "Identity released for body found in Charlotte plane’s landing gear, CMPD says."