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Wales Online
Wales Online
National
Tom Davidson

A body fell from a plane before it landed at Heathrow Airport

A man's body fell from a plane just before it landed at Heathrow Airport on Sunday.

It is thought the man had been a stowaway hiding in the undercarriage of the aircraft which had flown from Kenya.

Kenya Airways said his body fell into a garden in Clapham, south London at 3.41pm on Sunday.

The owner of the garden called police who linked the discovery with a Kenya Airways flight from Nairobi to Heathrow. 

The airline called the death 'unfortunate' and said it was cooperating with British and Kenyan authorities. The plane landed at 3.50pm.

On inspecting the aircraft police found a bag containing food and clothing at the rear left landing gear.

The body - which is yet to be identified - came crashing to earth close to Clapham Manor Primary School.

The incident is being treated as a sudden death, according to Kenya Airways.

A plane taking off at Heathrow airport (Daniel Leal-Olivas/PA Wire)

A statement from Scotland Yard said: "A post-mortem examination will be carried out in due course.

"Police are working to establish the man's identity. A crime scene was put in place but has since been closed. The death is not being treated as suspicious.

"Inquiries are underway to establish the full circumstances. At this point, police believe the man was a stowaway and had fallen from the landing gear of an inbound Kenya Airways flight to Heathrow Airport."

The 4,250-mile trip from Nairobi to Heathrow takes approximately eight hours and 50 minutes.

Stowaways have in the past fallen to the streets of London as planes lowered their landing gear. 

In September 2012, a 30-year old from Mozambique, Jose Matada, died after falling from the undercarriage of a Heathrow-bound flight from Angola.

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