Friday, June 19, 2015

South African stowaway fell to his death from British airways plane as it approached Heathrow in London

Stowaway found dead after falling from British plane

A stowaway on a British Airways jet was found dead after falling on a roof as the plane approached London Heathrow Airport, authorities said Friday. According to a report by The Sun UK, a man believed to be South African fell to his death from a British Airways passenger jet as the plane approached Heathrow airport. The stowaway’s body was found on an office block roof of a retail company along a busy road in Richmond, South West London.

Another man, also believed to be South African, survived the 8,000 mile, 11-hour flight from South Africa to London by holding on to the undercarriage of a British Airways Boeing 747. No one knows how the two men got there.

The second man was taken to hospital and is said to be in stable condition but is yet to talk to the police.

A Scotland Yard police spokesman confirmed the incident, saying;

‘Police were alerted at 8.28am to reports of a suspected stowaway. A man, aged between 25 and 30, has been taken to West London hospital. Inquiries are ongoing to establish the man’s identity”

POLICE STRUGGLED TO IDENTIFY MAN IN PREVIOUS INCIDENT: IMMIGRANT FROM MOZAMBIQUE HAD JUST ONE POUND IN HIS POCKET WHEN HE DIED

Mozambique immigrant Jose Matada died in a similar incident three years ago

In September 2012, a man from Mozambique fell to the ground in a suburban street in Mortlake, not far from Richmond, in an apparently similar incident.

The stowaway, later named as José Matada, was found in Portman Avenue, ten miles from the airport.

Police initially struggled to identify him but he was eventually identified using his mobile phone.

Detective sergeant Jeremy Allsup, from the Metropolitan Police, told his inquest that officers contacted a woman in Switzerland who had exchanged text messages with Mr Matada.

The woman told police Mr Matada had worked for her family as a housekeeper and gardener in South Africa and had spoken to her about travelling to Europe.

She told officers that although she had done nothing to facilitate his trip, she knew Mr Matada had ‘desired to travel to Europe for a better life’, Mr Allsup said.

Mr Matada died on his 26th birthday, with a single pound coin in his pocket, as well as currency from Botswana and Angola.

It is believed he would have fallen unconscious due to low oxygen levels and temperatures of -60C in the wheel recess of the BA76 Boeing 777 from Luanda, the Angolan capital.

Despite wearing only light clothes, a pathologist found he had survived most of the journey, but died before he fell to the ground.

Detectives initially believed Mr Matada was from Angola as he had the country’s currency on him when he was found in the street in Mortlake. But after analysing his phone, he was found to be from Mozambique

WHAT ARE THE CHANCES OF SURVIVING A STOWAWAY BID?

A study made in 2012 found at least 76 per cent of so-called ‘wheel-well stowaways’ die during their attempt.

Those that do survive tend to be on short-haul flights which stay at relatively low altitudes.

In one of the longest-distance known survivals, a stowaway got though a 4,000-mile journey from Hawaii to Los Angeles in 2000, but suffered severe hypothermia.

Experts say that if stowaways avoid being crushed when wheels are released, they fall unconscious at around 22,000ft as the oxygen level drops.

They will remain unconscious when the doors of the wheels reopen at around 3,000ft during the plane’s descent in to land, meaning they are unable to stop themselves falling.

Many of those who die attempting wheel-well stowaways freeze to death during the flight before dropping to the ground.

Source: The Sun UK/Mailonline