A stowaway fell from a plane’s landing gear as it approached Heathrow Airport, London and was later found dead in a garden.
The man’s body was found in a garden in Clapham, south London, on Sunday afternoon, police have said. As at press time, officers were unsure of his age, and were trying to identify him. He fell from a Kenya Airways plane at the end of a nine-hour flight from Nairobi. Police connected the body to their flight, the airline said.
The Metropolitan Police said it was called at 3.39pm on Sunday to Offerton Road in Clapham. A post mortem examination will be carried out, but the death is “not being treated as suspicious”, the force added.
In a statement, it said “police believe the man was a stowaway and had fallen from the landing gear of an inbound Kenya Airways flight to Heathrow Airport. “A bag, water and some food were discovered in the landing gear compartment once it landed at the airport.” Officers will be liaising “with the airline and international authorities”. Although a rare occurrence, it has happened before.
In September 2012, a 30-year-old man from Mozambique, Jose Matada, died after falling from the undercarriage of a flight approaching Heathrow from Angola. He is believed to have survived freezing temperatures of up to minus 60C for most of the 12-hour flight, an inquest heard.