JAMAICAN aviation authorities have asked American Airlines to expedite a written report into the case in which a dead man was found in the wheel well of one of its aircraft at New York’s Kennedy airport on Christmas Eve, hours after a flight from Montego Bay.

At the same time, the Jamaica embassy in Washington will also formally request from the US government, information on its own investigation into the incident, Jamaican sources said yesterday.

“The matter is being taken seriously and Jamaica would like to get to the bottom of it especially in the context of the recent developments with the United States making increasing demands for anti-terrorist measures on aircraft,” said a senior industry official.

Jamaican officials have ruled out that the would-be stowaway, a black/Hispanic male, believed to be in his mid-20s, sneaked into the wheel well of the Airbus A300, that operated flight 1190 on Christmas Eve, while in Jamaica.

They say that the plane stayed on the ground at Montego Bay’s Sangster for only an hour – too little time for any such breach – and claim, unofficially, that the body had been dead for up to four days before it was discovered.

Officials here conjecture that the person may had gone into the wheel well in the Dominican Republic, where the plane had overnighted four days before it came to Jamaica.

Attempts to stowaway in the wheel well of a aircraft often leads to death. Once the landing is retracted in flight there is little or no oxygen in the area. Moreover, the wheel well is not pressurised and any one riding there is subject to extreme high altitude temperatures.

But notwithstanding the low chance of survival of anyone travelling in the wheel well of a plane, Jamaican authorities are concerned about the security implications of an intruder getting there in the first place and the havoc that such a person could cause.

“This is a serious matter and we are very concerned about it,” said a source close to the investigation. “The Civil Aviation Authority verbally asked American Airlines for a report and are now formally writing them about it.”

In a separate interview, Robert Pickersgill, the minister with responsibility for transport, said that these circumstances placed pressure on America “to conduct a thorough investigation”.

This would probably account for any delay by America to produce a final report on the incident, said Pickersgill.

The pressure would have increased in the face of a similar incident on Tuesday when a body was found in the wheel well of a British Airways Boeing 747 jet that flown from London’s Heathrow airport to New York’s Kennedy.

This body was believed to be that of a Nigerian between 30 and 35. The plane had previously stopped at Lagos.

These security breaches occurred at time when the United States was on high security alert against a possible terror attack by the al Qaeda network.

They have been followed hard by an announcement by Tom Ridge, the US secretary for homeland security, that America will demand that armed sky marshals be placed on some flights into the United States.

Ridge did not announce which countries would be subject to the regulations, but Air Jamaica has said that it will comply with any directive and that it was talking with the Americans on the issue.

“All these developments regarding aviation security makes the investigation into the matter with the American Airlines plane important for Jamaica,” said a Jamaican official who is close to the matter.