US

DA: Teen Found Near Boston Likely Fell From Plane

BOSTON (AP) — A Massachusetts prosecutor said Friday it’s likely that a North Carolina teen whose mutilated body was found in a Boston suburb fell from the sky after stowing away in an airplane wheel well.

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 Charlotte’s North Mecklenburg High School. 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.

But the Delvonte Tisdale’s brother, Anthony Tisdale Jr., said his brother was unhappy in North Carolina and had never wanted to leave Baltimore, where he had lived earlier.

Comments (37)

  • LEGION
    Posted on December 12, 2010 at 2:35am

    Say his brother was right when he said the kid wanted to go back to Baltimore- UGH- that place is a cesspool. His father busted his butt to get him out of that murderous hellhole and he maybe stows away to go back? Dumb. He should have hitchhiked by car- plane went to Boston- he still would have had to travel by land. Very poorly thought out- Darwin Award. Or perhaps as someone said, he was killed in NC and stuffed in the wheel well. We may never know. So sad.

    Report Post » LEGION  
  • E-party
    Posted on December 11, 2010 at 5:15pm

    I wonder if Rev Al Sharpton will try to say this was racist?

    Report Post »  
  • Nigel2
    Posted on December 11, 2010 at 3:44pm

    Oh and it should be noted that certain areas of the plane are not pressurized and oxygen runs out above 17000 feet. Would-be stowaways be advised:-)

    Report Post » Nigel2  
  • Nigel2
    Posted on December 11, 2010 at 1:31pm

    Let this be a lesson to young liberals everywhere. When you try to get something for nothing. Bad things can happen.

    Report Post » Nigel2  
  • TheGreyPiper
    Posted on December 11, 2010 at 1:08pm

    What the — ? Old news. This happened at least a month ago.

    Report Post » TheGreyPiper  
  • KenInIL
    Posted on December 11, 2010 at 12:11pm

    This should really be an embarrassment for the TSA. While they are busy groping crotches, this kid proved how easy it would have been to put a remotely activated bomb in a wheel well and blown up the plane.

    Report Post »  
  • NE12012
    Posted on December 11, 2010 at 11:54am

    16 year olds should know there is no oxygen and no warmth 6 miles up.

    Report Post » NE12012  
  • lildeb56
    Posted on December 11, 2010 at 11:47am

    Some of you should be ashamed for the hostile posts. This was someone’s child. We all do stupid things in our youth. We still don’t know the circumstances of how he got there – he may NOT have gone there voluntarily. Please pray for his family – this HAS to be very painful for them.

    Report Post » lildeb56  
    • Hisemiester
      Posted on December 11, 2010 at 12:21pm

      second that. No one knows how much pressure this young man was under. I was in High School, half way through my senior year when my dad decided to move from a farm in Ar. to the large urban area of the San Francisco Bay area. I felt as if my whole life had come to an abrupt end. Many years have gone by since then. I was 16 then, am 69 now. Don’t know if I ever got over the trauma. So leave this kid alone. Please.

      Report Post »  
    • lulu229
      Posted on December 11, 2010 at 8:54pm

      Ditto, Lildeb

      Report Post »  
  • beekeeper
    Posted on December 11, 2010 at 11:06am

    This is a 16 year-old high school student in a high school ROTC program, not a college ROTC student. Many students enroll in ROTC in college as a way to pay for college. His family had to move for him to be in the program.

    He “appeared” outside Boston, but the article implies he was trying to get back to Baltimore…

    It makes no sense that anyone with a modicum of intelligence would think they would survive a trip in a wheel well of a jet liner – I suspect foul play at the NC airport and his lifeless body was stuffed in the wheel well to get rid of the body. Does the HS ROTC program do anything on tarmac at the local commercial airport?

    There is a huge piece of this story yet to be learned…

    Report Post » beekeeper  
  • firstHat
    Posted on December 11, 2010 at 9:58am

    1) he must have been very unhappy (what teenager isn’t at some point)
    2) he must have been very stubborn (again…a teenager)
    3) he must have thought that he was immortal (again… a teenager)

    All I can think of is what we all would be saying if by some miracle he had survived the trip. I’m so very sorry he was bone headed enough to think he could do it. I am so very sorry for his family and friends. It is just plain sad no matter how you look at it.

    Report Post »  
  • Ed in Lebec
    Posted on December 11, 2010 at 8:31am

    He really showed the world he had GUTS!

    Report Post » OH, I Get It!  
  • Akira Gomi
    Posted on December 11, 2010 at 8:30am

    Stupid kid he climbed up in the wheel well WTF? Didn’t he realize that the landing gear retracts and occupies that space, crunch crunch instant vegamatic, ground and frozen beef he was.. I wonder how far he bounced when he hit the ground..

    Report Post » Akira Gomi  
  • mtnclimberjim
    Posted on December 11, 2010 at 7:52am

    Sure glad that dumb ass didn’t make it into the air force. prayer for family

    mtnclimberjim  
  • Gonzo
    Posted on December 11, 2010 at 7:38am

    Sounds like a case of the Law of Natural Selection. If you’re dumb enough to get in the wheel well of a jet and expect to survive, then it‘s probably a good thing you won’t breed.

    Gonzo  
  • ProudTeaPartyMember
    Posted on December 11, 2010 at 7:27am

    What goes up, must come down.

    Report Post » ProudTeaPartyMember  
  • Damifiknow
    Posted on December 11, 2010 at 6:43am

    Mabee he was killed and stuffed in there to hide the body ,someone working in the airlines would know what would happen after the gear came down . Covering the trail of the crime…I would be looking at everyone that had access to that aircraft. A kid in ROTC doesn’t breach the tarmac and get into a wheel well un noticed..

    Report Post »  
    • lulu229
      Posted on December 11, 2010 at 8:51pm

      yes, it is odd, and it seems strange in all the reports, there has been no mention of his car being found near the airport, or anyone coming forward to say they saw him taking any form of mass transit/taxi the evening he went missing. His home is at least 15 miles from the airport, so it is not like he walked there…

      Report Post »  
  • DaytonConserve
    Posted on December 11, 2010 at 6:41am

    Where was the ground crew when this plane was preparing for takeoff?

    Report Post »  
  • Damifiknow
    Posted on December 11, 2010 at 6:38am

    Mabee he was killed and stuffed in there to hide the body ,someone working in the airlines would know what would happen after the gear came down . Covering the trail of the crime…

    Report Post »  
  • prage2001
    Posted on December 11, 2010 at 2:57am

    I’ve been following the story here in Charlotte and it seems they did find him on the approach path to Boston in the area where the landing gear was lowered, with industrial/aviation grease found on his clothing. The origonal report here ( Charlotte ) stated he was found mutilated, all his extremities fractured in multiple places and his face was “deformed”.

    This has been one weird case from the start.

    Report Post »  
  • afroggy
    Posted on December 11, 2010 at 1:50am

    1,
    “a member of the ROTC (intelligent) actually thought he could survive stowing away in a wheel well of a plane? Doubt it.”

    I certainly don’t. Primarily because I’ve known too many ROTC kids. Don‘t think I’m picking on them though, as I don’t put them any higher, or lower, than any other college student when it comes to intelligence. Ask folks that have been through ROTC about that.

    As to the probability that he was actually in a wheel well, it happens very commonly. Granted, a person has to be suicidal or stupid to attempt it, but ROTC does not make you immune to either of those diseases. That was demonstrated by the AF A-10 driver out of AZ that decided to “disappear” and ended his life by trying to tunnel through the top of a mountain in CO. The A-10 is tough, but not that tough. Military or not, there are certain laws of physics and biology that cannot be violated.

    As I stated previously on this story, I never swung my gear on someone in the wheel well that I knew about, but I know those that have.

    Report Post » afroggy  
    • loveoursoldiers
      Posted on December 11, 2010 at 7:13am

      what? as a pilot you know if someone is in the wheelwell?

      Report Post » loveoursoldiers  
    • afroggy
      Posted on December 11, 2010 at 3:42pm

      Dear Loveoursoldiers,

      “what? as a pilot you know if someone is in the wheelwell?”

      Indeed, you might know this as a pilot. On some Boeings (I seemed to have driven them mostly), there are wheelwell viewing ports located at the overwing section in the pax cabin. As a passenger, you would not know where they are, but we do. In the event that the cockpit indication of the gear position is unavailable (defective gear indicators), the position of the gear can be ascertained by removing the carpet and port covers in the floor at those locations. Looking through a window in the floor, and through the use of strategically placed mirrors within the wheelwell, one can view the necessary indicators direcly in the wheelwell environment. I never had to do this during my career, but it is always available had we needed to confirm main gear position.

      Of course, there are other things that can be seen in the wheel well through this system. I shall leave it to your imagination as to what that might be. Also, if the “foreign object” in the wheel well is not completely clear of the gear as it is retracting there may be a cockpit indication that the gear is “in transit” when it should be fully retracted. Consider that as well.

      The old joke was that if you ever have to view the gear directly, and you are questioned by an astounded passenger as to what you are looking for through the floor, the proper answer is, “Rats”.

      Thus, there are a couple of methodologies that might indicate an additional fellow traveller is aboard. As a pilot, you might know about it. You might not. It just depends depends on what cues may become available to you in the cockpit.

      Report Post » afroggy  
  • staythecourse
    Posted on December 11, 2010 at 1:22am

    NO.1… How true. They say the big question is how he got on the plane…what about the “why” of why he would have done it. It does seem strange that an ROTC would do that. It does seem more like foul play… did somebody “stuff” him in there before the plane took off. I certainly hope forensics does a thorough job on this one.. Again, why would he even be doing the trip?

    Report Post »  
  • lildeb56
    Posted on December 11, 2010 at 12:44am

    As I said when this story broke on The Blaze, This sounds like a mystery to me.

    Report Post » lildeb56  
  • 123gone
    Posted on December 11, 2010 at 12:38am

    Or maybe pushed / dumped from a small plane flying the same approach? Frostbite might tell.

    Report Post »  
  • axxis 409
    Posted on December 11, 2010 at 12:16am

    Hmmm.. interesting point no1

    Report Post »  
  • No1YaKnow
    Posted on December 11, 2010 at 12:10am

    Something here doesn’t seem right…a member of the ROTC (intelligent) actually thought he could survive stowing away in a wheel well of a plane? Doubt it.

    Report Post » Marci  
    • OATMEAL
      Posted on December 11, 2010 at 3:46am

      The family said the young man was wanting to become a pilot……What? He thought this would help prepare him for Flight School………No, he was a Thug trying to break in to the baggage area is what I think……..Reminds me of the ones I seen after Katrina stealing a Flat Screen with no electricity…….That is just not very smart!………Don’t Do It.

       
    • The Third Archon
      Posted on December 11, 2010 at 4:13am

      Suicide

      Report Post » The Third Archon  
    • Polwatcher
      Posted on December 11, 2010 at 6:16am

      “Stupid” is the only reason something like this.

      Report Post »  
    • PatA
      Posted on December 11, 2010 at 8:27am

      @NO1YAKNOW, a member of the ROTC (intelligent)? Please! Some of the biggest idiots I’ve ever met in my military career were ROTC graduates.

      PatA  
    • lulu229
      Posted on December 11, 2010 at 10:24am

      My son knew this kid. He was not a thug or stupid. He was a polite, likeable young man. This is a horrible event for our community and this family

      Report Post »  
    • sing it out
      Posted on December 11, 2010 at 11:19am

      @lulu229 This is such a sad story; I’m sorry your community had to face this loss.

      Report Post » sing it out  

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