Body found on Saudi plane tyre
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia — Airport workers in Riyadh found a human body on the landing gear of a flight from Beirut early Saturday, after a man apparently tried to hitch a ride on the Saudi-owned Nas Air jet, aviation authorities said.The body was discovered when a maintenance worker went to inspect the right rear landing gear of the Airbus 320 after it landed at Riyadh's King Khaled International Airport on the flight from Lebanon, the Saudi General Authority of Civil Aviation said in a statement.
"When approaching the aircraft he discovered the body of a person who had tried to hide in the wheel bay while the plane took off from Beirut International Airport," the Jeddah-based authority said.The unidentified body was sent to forensic medical experts for further examination, they said.
Nas Air flight XY 720 took off from Beirut airport late Friday and landed Saturday morning in the Saudi capital."A man who has not yet been identified somehow managed to grab hold of a (wheel) of the jet in Beirut without the control tower noticing before takeoff," a Lebanon airport official told AFP.
Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA) said passengers on the plane reported seeing a man in a baseball cap with a backpack make a dash for plane as it prepared to taxi. He stumbled once and then continued towards the plane."The passengers and flight attendants informed the pilot, but he did not take any action and continued takeoff without informing the Beirut control tower" that anything was amiss, according to the NNA.
In Riyadh, Nas Air declined to comment on the report.
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