Yahoo News 'Stowaway' who fell from plane in London garden 'was worker at Kenyan airport'
A suspected stowaway whose body fell from a plane and landed in a South London garden was likely to be a worker at Nairobi airport, a Kenyan official said today.
The body landed just one metre away from a man sunbathing in Clapham and made a crater in the back garden.
He fell from a plane travelling from Kenya to London Heathrow.
The head of Kenya’s Civil Aviation Authority said the man probably had legal access to the airport.
John Baldock was lying on the lawn of his garden when the frozen body hit the ground next to him.
Neighbours said Mr Baldock was left in ‘complete shock’ after the near miss, which left the walls of the garden spattered with blood.
Photos from the scene show the force of the body’s fall made a crater in the back garden, denting paving slabs and astro turf.
Police were called to an address in Offerton Road in Clapham at 3.39pm on Sunday by shocked residents.
One neighbour described hearing a "whomp" as the body hit the ground.
Police believe the body to be that of a man and he is understood to have fallen from the landing gear of a Kenya Airways flight as it prepared to land at Heathrow Airport.
According to data from flightradar24.com, the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner was little more than 3,500 feet above the ground as it flew over the street.
The neighbour said: "I heard a 'whomp' - I went upstairs to look out of a window. At first I though it was a tramp asleep in the garden.
"He had all of his clothes on and everything. I had a closer look and saw there was blood all over the walls of the garden.
"His head was not in a good way. I realised immediately that he had fallen.
"So I went outside and it was just then the neighbour came out and he was very shaken. He had been sunbathing and he landed one metre away from him."
He continued: "The police were here very quickly."
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The neighbour, who asked not to be named, said that a plane spotter, who had been following the flight on a plane tracking app from Clapham Common, had seen the body fall.
The plane spotter had arrived almost at the same time as the police and told them the body had fallen from a Kenya Airways flight.
The neighbour said: "The police had four cars. They were here for about five hours to start the clean-up operation."
He said the body was removed at about 8.30pm and that the clean-up team had returned on Monday morning to continue the job.
He added the neighbour that had been sunbathing had returned briefly yesterday evening before leaving again.
He said: "I spoke to Heathrow Airport this morning to ask if they were aware of this.
"If it had been two seconds later, he would have landed on the common where there were hundreds of people - my kids were in the garden 15 minutes before [he fell]."
Describing the victim, he said: "One of the reasons his body was so intact was because his body was an ice block."
Another neighbour said she had heard a thump, but thought it was falling scaffolding from nearby building works.
Referring to her neighbours, she said: "My heart goes out to them, they're going to have to live with that for the rest of their lives."
The Met Police said a bag, water and some food were discovered in the landing gear compartment of the plane when it arrived at the airport.
A post-mortem examination will be carried out in due course, the force said, and the age of the individual has yet to be determined.
The death is not being treated as suspicious.
Inquiries are being conducted with the Met's southern central command unit and its aviation policing command. The Met said it would be liaising with the airline and international authorities.
