Stowaway meets death falling from British Airways aircraft

Heathrow, June 20: A stowaway met his destiny after he fell from a British Airline as the plane approached the Heathrow Airport.

It is yet to be ascertained whether the man was hiding in the wheel well, which is common for stowaways.

Another man who was hiding in the undercarriage of the plane is reported to be injured. Enroute London from Johannesburg, the man fell on the roof of a business in Richmond when the plane was about to finish its 12 hour journey.

British Airways Flight 54 is a Boeing 747 that departed Johannesburg on Thursday night and arrived at the Heathrow airport at 7:26 am, London time.

Similar such incidents have been reported earlier too when crews at Dulles International Airport in suburban Washington found the body of a man in the wheel well of the Airbus A340 operated by South African Airways.

Plenty of people are said to have tried riding on a plane secretly, but most do not survive.

A ground engineer said that although it was not difficult to mount a wheel well, the stowaway has to do a lot of mathematics, guessing where exactly the wheels will fold. Apart from the fear of being crushed, he also has to fight lack of space, which is lesser than a car trunk.

OneIndia News