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Bizarre: Man Drops Out of Plane, Falls Near U.K. Lingerie Store…And Cops Have No Idea Who He Is

Dec. 10, 2012 12:24pm Erica Ritz

U.K. Police Unable to Identify Man Who Fell From Jet to Heathrow Airport Two Months Ago | Angola

This E-FIT image (Electronic Facial Identification Technique) provided by the Metropolitan Police on Dec. 7, 2012 show a computer-based face of a man whom British police are trying to identify after his body was found near London’s Heathrow Airport. (Photo: AP)

(TheBlaze/AP) — Police believe he was from Africa, most likely Angola, but they know little else about the man who unexpectedly dropped from the sky more than two months ago.

The mystery began in September when residents of a suburban street in the Mortlake neighborhood of West London woke up on a quiet Sunday morning to find the crumpled body of a black man on the sidewalk of Portman Avenue, near a convenience store, an upscale lingerie shop, and a storefront offering Chinese medical cures.

Detectives believed at first the man was a murder victim and cordoned off the area. Within a day, however, police concluded the man – already dead – had fallen to the ground when a jet passing overhead lowered its landing gear as it neared the runway at nearby Heathrow Airport.

The apparent stowaway had no identification papers – just some currency from Angola, leading police to surmise that he was from that African nation, especially as inquiries showed that a plane from Angola was beginning its descent into Heathrow at about that time.

The macabre explanation made perfect sense to residents, who are familiar not only with the roar of the jets descending, but are also able to see the planes lower their landing gears as they pass overhead, said Catherine Lambert, who lives a few doors down from the spot where the man landed.

“You could see him, his body was contorted,” she said. “It was a beautiful blue day, really sunny, but we had to keep the children inside. I didn’t want the children to see, and to have to explain to them and put fear into them every time a plane goes over.”

A post mortem conducted two days after the body landed listed the cause of death as “multiple injuries.”

In the days afterward, some neighbors put flowers on the spot where the stowaway was found, and a small group of Angolans who live in the London area came to place more flowers and to pray. Lambert, 41, said there is lingering sadness, since the man has not been identified and there has been no way to tell his family he is gone.

“I felt, what was he running away from? What made him think he could he could? And how will his family ever know? He’s a lost soul now; his father and mother are probably waiting for him to make contact,” she said.

Airline jets sit grounded on the tarmac at Heathrow airport on October 30, 2011 in London, England. (Photo: Getty Images)

A London police spokesman, who wasn’t authorized to speak on the record because of force policy, said Sunday that police are appealing to the public for help identifying the man based on a composite image of his face and a photo of a tattoo on his left arm. The tattoo showed the letters “Z” and “G” inked on his upper arm, with a horizontal line through the “Z”.

Police also said attempts to identify the man with the help of Angolan authorities had been unsuccessful. They stressed there is only “circumstantial” evidence linking the stowaway to that country.

In a statement, police said the man is believed to be an African of slight build between the ages of 20 and 30. He was wearing jeans, white sneakers and a gray sweatshirt when he was found on Sept. 9, police said.

Although firm figures are not available, in recent years there has been a rise in the number of stowaways trying to get to Western Europe by hiding in the undercarriages of passenger planes.

The Daily Mail posted an animated video of how it likely occurred:

Aviation safety specialist Chris Yates of Yates Consulting said Sunday that poor airport perimeter security at a number of airports in Africa and other parts of the world has made it easier for people to stow away on planes, but that most attempts fail.

“They so often end in fatality because more often than not stowaways climb into the wheel base or cargo hold, and those areas are not necessarily pressurized,” he said. “When you start moving beyond 10,000 feet, oxygen starvation becomes a reality. As you climb up to altitude, the issue becomes cold as well, the temperature drops to minus 40 or minus 50 degrees centigrade, so survival rates drop.”

He said the man who crashed to the pavement in Mortlake had probably lost consciousness and died within the first hour of his flight.

Police said the body is being held for possible repatriation in case the man’s identity is established.

Mortlake residents and business people speak of a similar death in recent years, but disagree about the timing and the details.

“People say the same thing happened a few years ago a few blocks away” said Jay Sivapalan, 29, who works at the Variety Box convenience store half a block from where the body landed. “We are near Heathrow and when they lower the landing gear, the body falls out.”

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Comments (24)

BamaBryan
Posted on December 11, 2012 at 8:58pm
I just thought we had an imigration problem. At least wetbacks have the descency to swim over and aren’t just falling from the sky. Now, if you don’t think that is funny you are a bleeding heart liberal or you hate free speach. Either way kiss my white hairy a$$!

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GuruMeditation
Posted on December 11, 2012 at 11:12am
It seems it would be quite easy to put sensors in the landing gear compartment that could sense such obstructions and not allow the plane to take off until such foreign bodies are removed.

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Astronomia
Posted on December 11, 2012 at 10:56am
Hmm, silly me. I forgot I was reading the Blaze and was thinking I was reading The Daily Mail!

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Frederick_Douglass_Republican
Posted on December 10, 2012 at 10:47pm
Cause of death: IQ deficit disorder.
Funny how some of the English ninnies seemed sad for him. Just think! He could have been another dreg on the welfare rolls or been taken in by one of the countless radical Islam sects in England.
Cause of death of England: Sanity/Sentiency deficit disorder

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LoadDrive1
Posted on December 10, 2012 at 1:59pm
I know this Man !!! He is the one from nigeria…that was going to put $1000000.00 into my Bank Account ! ;)

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- OniKaze
  Posted on December 10, 2012 at 3:44pm
  Man, too bad you didn’t give him that $10,000 transaction deposit before he fell… Now you will never get your $10,000,000….
  
  Too Bad…
  
  All joking aside, who doesn’t know that you cannot stow away in the cargo hold of a plane that goes to a normal altitude… Air IS a building block of life, and it is quite lacking at over 10,000 ft….
  
  Report this comment
- redfish52
  Posted on December 10, 2012 at 4:08pm
  Its raining men…yea I know…I hate myself right now..
  
  Report this comment
- OldSurfRat
  Posted on December 10, 2012 at 5:38pm
  Load
  The story is sad but that was funny!
  
  A few of the other post on this were just down right out of line or should I say lamo.
  
  Report this comment
Hodmokrin
Posted on December 10, 2012 at 1:12pm
If I was planning on escaping from my nation of origin, I don’t think climbing on landing gear would be my first choice of traveling options. Boat, train, car, walk, swim, horse, but never on landing gear.

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48Straights
Posted on December 10, 2012 at 12:55pm
More cutting edge “news” stories to distract and keep TheBlaze readers uninformed.

Is there a single real news story on Glenn Beck’s great news site today? I think a year from now TheBlaze and Glen Beck are going to be retired to the great black hole of political insignificantly.

Neither no longer matter, report real world news, lead or care about conservatism and are just a shell of what they once were. Just like the Detroit high school pics.

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- RaydocX
  Posted on December 10, 2012 at 1:09pm
  then you can move along, troll… there must be up and coming conservative boards for you to joust with the still surviving conservatives.
  
  Report this comment
- Hodmokrin
  Posted on December 10, 2012 at 1:15pm
  If you don’t like it, then make like a tree…..
  
  Report this comment
- ArmedAndReallyPissed
  Posted on December 10, 2012 at 1:18pm
  48(probablynot)STRAIGHT : Normal people that are tired of a site move on. You and your fellow TROLLS are almost laughable.
  
  Report this comment
RaydocX
Posted on December 10, 2012 at 12:53pm
oops… always helps to read the whole article first…
how can they not have an ID after two months?
oh, they have Hillary and the State Department working on it, a la Benghazi.

makes you wonder how long before some suicide bomber chooses to climb up into the wheel well in one of these ‘less secure’ airports…

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RaydocX
Posted on December 10, 2012 at 12:51pm
Watch out! Bob Costas is going to do a guest spot on Monday Night Football and insist that this would not have happened if man could not fly, and imply that we should not have planes…

I was puzzled why he was not standing up last night to insist cars should be outlawed in light of the Cowboy’s tragedy.

Suspect this was a stowaway who did not consider the temperature and lack of oxygen at altitude… can only pray he wasn’t conscious during the fall.

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- 48Straights
  Posted on December 10, 2012 at 1:00pm
  I was thinking the same thing Ray. Hopefully Costas will be off MNF soon. Haven’t been able to listen to that guy for a long time now. But then again Obama is still president, go figure.
  
  Report this comment
- LakeHartwellSailor
  Posted on December 10, 2012 at 3:15pm
  As a weekly flier; I would LOVE it to be illegal to fly. Then I could finally work from home.
  
  Report this comment
Psychosis
Posted on December 10, 2012 at 12:50pm
it was just Africas attempt at space travel

big trampoline and no parachute

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- OldSurfRat
  Posted on December 10, 2012 at 12:59pm
  Really??
  Really??
  
  Come on you make yourself look small with that comment and I like good humor on most topics.
  
  Report this comment
SpankDaMonkey
Posted on December 10, 2012 at 12:48pm
.
One of the dangers of trying to hold onto an airplane and eat fried chicken at the same time……….

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- OldSurfRat
  Posted on December 10, 2012 at 1:04pm
  Really??
  Really??
  
  Come on you also make yourself look small with that comment and I like good humor on most topics.
  
  Report this comment
- Frederick_Douglass_Republican
  Posted on December 10, 2012 at 10:50pm
  Well unless your skin is black that is a racist comment.
  
  So please tell me you’re not white skinned since then I’d have to put you on the bad-speak list I regularly send to the central authority.
  
  Report this comment
ArmedAndReallyPissed
Posted on December 10, 2012 at 12:46pm
Atleast his Family can be glad he didn’t land in America. His body would have been held indefinately without being Officially charged or tried for being a suspected Terrorist.

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DJR
Posted on December 10, 2012 at 12:38pm
Maybe he thought it was Black Friday

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