Stowaway smashes into parked car after falling from Heathrow-bound jet

Horror ... body is removed from west London pavement

A BLOODIED body found in a street under the Heathrow flight path is feared to be a stowaway who fell thousands of feet to his death from a jet liner.

The young man may have already been dead before he crash-landed on a car parked in a quiet residential street, experts believe.
Parts of his body catapulted up to 20 feet away onto residents’ cars before police and forensics closed the road for around six hours.
Horrified residents living in south-west London – just a few miles from Heathrow - woke to find the young man’s body on the road outside their homes at 7.55am yesterday.
Scotland Yard is investigating suggestions the victim tumbled from the plane as it prepared to land at Heathrow.
The man, believed to be from North Africa and in his 30s, suffered multiple injuries when he was found in Portman Avenue, Mortlake.

Jet fall ... body is believed to have dropped from Heathrow-bound plane

An expert from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said a stowaway in the undercarriage risked being crushed by the plane’s wheels right after take-off or frozen in temperatures of up to minus 40C.
Richard Taylor, from the Civil Aviation Authority, said: “The chances of survival for a stowaway are very slim, particularly in the recess of the landing gear if someone tried to stowaway there.
“More likely they would be crushed when the landing gear retracted. There is not a lot of room there and there is a huge wheel that has to come up.
“There may be a small gap but even if they survived that, it is going to be about -40C so without specialist, Arctic clothing there is nobody that could survive that temperature.
“I don’t know of anyone who has survived being stowed away on a long-haul flight and it is surprising that so many people still try.
“When the landing gear comes down at the other end, a couple of miles from the runway and about 2,000ft in the air, if there is a person who had died they would fall out.”
Local Joe Dodd said he woke to find the street outside sealed off by police on Sunday.
He said: “When I got up at eight the body was still on the pavement. They had not moved it.
“We were not allowed out of our house for ages. There was police and ambulances everywhere. From where I was it looked like he had a head injury of some kind.
“There was loads of blood everywhere, all over the street and on a car.”
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: “We were called to reports of a dead body at 7.55am yesterday. The victim had multiple injuries. The death is currently being treated as unexplained.
“Speculation that he may have been a stowaway who had fallen from a plane is one line of inquiry.”
A post mortem examination will be carried out later this week.