Residents of a plush
London suburb where in shock as the body of a man was found dead in street... and police fear he was an
illegal immigrant stowaway who had been clinging to a plane- Police say man, believed to be in 30s, could
have fallen thousands of feet
- Found on car parked on road in affluent London
suburb of Mortlake
- Street is around 10 miles away from Heathrow
Airport and on flight path
- Aviation expert believes he froze to death; it
appears body fell out of hold
- Man thought to be from North Africa and
suffered multiple injuries
- Residents described 'monstrous bang' and body
parts flying 20ft away
A stowaway appears to have plunged thousands
of feet onto a quiet residential street after his frozen body dropped out
of an aeroplane's undercarriage as it came in to land.
The body of the man, thought to be in his 30s and from
North Africa, was found on a car parked in a road near London Heathrow Airport
by shocked residents at 7:55am yesterday morning.
Locals in Mortlake, south west London, said the man had
suffered multiple injuries and parts of his body had flown up to 20ft away
‘like a melon being whacked’ - but nobody else was injured.
Astonishing: The body of the man, thought to be a
stowaway in his 30s and from North Africa, was found on a car parked in a
residential road near London Heathrow Airport and later taken away by
authorities
Mortlake, an affluent suburb in the capital which lies
on the south bank of the River Thames near Barnes and Kew Gardens, is around 10
miles away from the airport and on the flight path.
Billy Watson, 26, who lives opposite where the man
fell, saw the body ‘all twisted up’ and believed it belonged to someone of Albanian
or Moroccan origin.
Probe: Forensics were on the scene in the affluent
London suburb after the extraordinary incident on Sunday
‘It has been a bit sombre and it's quite creepy. It was
a good six hours before it was all clean. The council (employee) had to come
and clean it and he just had a broom and a bucket.’
'Bits of his body were just
everywhere, and the police were putting their cones by them. The bits had
spread about 20 to 30ft away'.Billy Watson, 26, Mortlake resident
The only pieces of evidence left on the scene today were
dark smears on the pavement where the blood was cleared up and a bunch of
lilies and a rose left by neighbours to mark the spot.
Richard Taylor, from the Civil Aviation Authority, said
this kind of incident was not the first of its kind and added that there was
very little chance of survival for stowaways.
He said: ‘The temperatures in the undercarriage reach
-40C (-40F) at high altitudes, so the person has basically frozen to death.
There is virtually no chance of someone surviving that.’