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Stowaway who plummeted from overhead flight could have been Kenyan airport employee

The body of a stowaway fell from a plane into the yard of a home in Clapham, in south-west London.

The body of a stowaway fell from a plane into the yard of a home in Clapham, in south-west London. Photo: AAP

The “frozen” body of a man who fell from a Kenya Airways plane into a London garden may have been a Nairobi airport worker, the BBC reports.

Kenya’s Civil Aviation Authority director-general Gilbert Kibe said the security was so tight at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, it was unlikely that “an outsider” could have accessed the plane.

He said airport workers and pilots routinely check planes before they take off.

“They do check every part of the airplane, including the undercarriage, the wheels, the brakes, the tyre condition, the wheel well that is above there,” Mr Kibe told BBC Africa.

“So when those checks were being done, it is not likely that person was there, otherwise he would have been seen.

“So at which point the person gained access, that is the mystery.”

When asked if it could have been an airport employee who sneaked aboard the plane, Mr Kibe said “maybe”.

Police said it was likely the man was a stowaway, based on the bag, water and some food that was discovered in the plane’s landing gear.

Grisly scene in London garden

Speaking to the BBC, a neighbour, who asked not to be identified, said the man fell a metre away from a resident who had been sunbathing in the garden of the Clapham home.

He recalled hearing a “whomp”, before discovering “blood all over the walls of the garden”.

“So I went outside, and it was just then the neighbour came out and he was very shaken,” the man said.

The man said the body was “intact” despite the fall, describing it as frozen “like an ice block”.

In a statement, Kenya Airways described the incident as “unfortunate” and said it would work closely with authorities in Nairobi and London as they investigated the case.

Attempts to identify stowaway

London police said an autopsy would be conducted on the man’s body.

“Police are working to establish the man’s identity,” a police statement said.

In a statement to local news site Standard Media, Kenya Airports Authority said fingerprints taken from the man were being analysed.

The authority is also looking through CCTV footage captured around the plane for the last 24 hours before its departure.

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