A man who attempted to stowaway on a flight from Johannesburg to London has fallen to his death after making it all the way to southwest London.

A second man, aged between 25 and 30, also fell from the plane but somehow managed to survive and is currently in a critical condition in a west London hospital. This from Sky News:

The victim died as the Boeing 747 came into land over Richmond at around 9.30am on Thursday.

He reportedly landed on the roof of NotOnTheHighStreet.com in Kew Road…

British Airways described it as a “very rare case” and said it is working with police in London and Johannesburg to establish the facts.

Scotland Yard has hopped on the case and a post-morten is set to take place shortly, where the victim’s identity will hopefully be determined. Whilst incidents such as these are rare there is some recent history, with stowaways hiding in the landing gear before suffering from the freezing temperatures and lack of oxygen at higher altitudes:

In September 2012, Jose Matada, 26, died after falling from the undercarriage of a Heathrow-bound flight from Angola on to a road in Mortlake, about a mile from Richmond.

The 26-year-old from Mozambique is believed to have survived temperatures of up to minus 60C for most of the 12-hour flight, an inquest heard.

Here’s hoping the second stowaway manages a full recovery and can shed some light on just how they managed to board the plane before take-off.

[source:sky]