A North African man in his thirties has fallen thousands of feet into the London suburb of Mortlake. It is believed he froze to death, and then fell out of an airplane’s landing gear, before landing on a car. Residents describe hearing a “monstrous bang”, and upon investigating, made the gruesome discovery. The plane was on its way to Heathrow.

This is the second stowaway story to make the news recently. Last month, Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) confirmed that a stowaway on a BA aircraft bound for London was found dead upon arrival at Heathrow Airport.

Richard Taylor, of the Civil Aviation Authority, said any stowaway in an aircraft undercarriage was unlikely to have survived as he would either be crushed by the wheels after take-off, or freeze to death in temperatures as low as minus 40C.

The chances of survival for a stowaway are very slim, particularly in the recess of the landing gear. I don’t know of anyone who has survived being stowed away on a long-haul flight. When the landing gear comes down at the other end, a few miles from the runway and about 2 000 feet in the air, if there is a person who had died they would fall out.

[Source: Daily Mail]