Sunbathers narrow miss with a body that fell from the sky

Strange news in the papers this week as a Londoner’s sunbathing stint was disrupted by the body of a man falling from the sky and landing in a Clapham garden just feet away from where the occupant lay dozing on his lounger.

A Kenya Airways flight was on its final approach in to Heathrow airport when the suspected migrant fell from a landing gear compartment as the plane lowered its wheels just before 3.40pm on Sunday, landing face down on the lawn just 1 metre away from the stunned tenant. Oddly enough the plane was being tracked by a local resident who not only saw the body fall from the plane, but he caught it on camera.

It is thought that the stowaway was already dead when he fell from flight KQ100 and landed in the garden as he would have had to survive almost nine hours starved of oxygen and temperatures of around -60C at an altitude of 40,000ft. Kenya Airways called the death “unfortunate” and said it was cooperating with British and Kenyan authorities who are still investigating but have confirmed that police found a bag containing food and clothing at the rear left landing gear suggesting that the man had expected to survive the flight. The man has not yet been identified but a postmortem is to be carried out to confirm the cause of death and to establish who he is.

Kenya Airways said in a statement: “The incident has been treated as a sudden death and is now a police matter. “The police have already been in contact with the Kenya High Commission to help identify and name the person. “It is unfortunate that a person has lost his life by stowing aboard one of our aircraft and we express our condolences. “Kenya Airways is working closely with the relevant authorities in Nairobi and London as they fully investigate this case.”The Kenya Airports Authority said it is investigating how the man got onto the plane in Nairobi. It tweeted: “We wish to reiterate that safety and security is a priority at our airports and this incident is being treated with the seriousness it deserves.”

With airport security supposedly being as tight as ever given the terrorism threats faced by most of the world this story does leave me questioning how this guy managed to sneak aboard in the first place. He must have been exceptionally desperate to take such drastic action to leave that’s for sure.