Feeling really sad for the man who fell to his death from the sky (airplane stowaway possibly) in East Sheen

[QuintessentialShadows]

here

Will he be identified? His family notified? I just dont understand how this can happen.

If the plane was landing then I don't understand how he would even have survived on the plane for a whole flight

Thank god the fool didn't land on anyone, he could have killed someone or caused a road accident, very lucky he fell over a small road rather then a motorway

There was astowaway recently who landed at Heathrow - his body was frozen.
Would a frozen body thaw when falling from the sky? With a frozen body you wouldn't get a pool of blood unless it had been then for a few hours.

Can't believe how foolish some people are! Yes sun, could well have been a tragedy for normal, law abiding people had he landed elsewhere.

Doesn't it depend where he came from, I'm sure little flights from Europe don't go as high.

Could have been someone trying to go home, tonnes of homeless polish and Indian people in west London. They don't know what flight it was could have been one going rather then coming in. It's foolish to assume considering our economic statues at the mo.

Well the article said it was coming in to land

How do they know he fell off a plane? Even European Planes fly at 30,000, you fly as high as you can because you are lighter.

At 20,000 feet you have 20 minutes before you pass out without oxygen
At 30,000 feet you have a minute
If this is true, he died on the plane and fell off later.

I remember there was one a few years ago, who landed where Sainsbury's is now, when it was an old gas storage area. He had fallen out when the wheels came down to land. He had come from somewhere in Africa I think. Very sad, and shows just how desperate some people can be. I remember at the time thinking that at least he hadn't landed in someone's garden.

for them all.

It's desperately sad. There's a carpark in Hounslow where frozen stowaways often end up. They fall when the wheels for landing come down, but freeze to death hours before when the plane reaches a certain altitude.

How can someone fall from a plane? Aren't they pressurised? How would they open a door/hatch without sucking out the other cargo or passengers?

Does this happen in other countries? or just to us...

bun they are hiding in the outside plane area..

Bun have you read the thread?! They arent IN the plane. They're clinging on to the landing gear.

It didn't say in the first link and I didn't look at the second one. How desperate must these people be? I only fly when we go on holiday and I know it is about -40 deg when you are at 35,000 plus feet.

I do feel for him, and his family.

If I lived in circumstances which made stowing away in the landing gear of a plane an attractive option, I seriously doubt that the thought of causing a traffic accident thousands of miles away would be up there on my list of things to worry about.

If you look on the BBC news site, they don't know for sure how he died. The stowaway story is one theory. Apparently they try to hold onto the landing gear before it goes inside the plane, and end up in the hold.

I've read the thread, and nowhere does it say the person or stowaways in general AREN'T in the plane. It's certainly not something that I consider general knowledge either.
Very sad for this man, his family and all the people who had to see his broken body. Probably not a sight they'll forget for a long time. R.I.P.

This is actually quite common when planes come from poor countries with inadequate security around the planes. The people climb into the housing for the landing gear and seem not to know that they will freeze to death in there while flying at 35,000ft. Makes you wonder how difficult it would be to shove a bomb in there instead of a person doesn't it ...

How desperate must these people be?

Well, they're obviously very fucking desperate to do something like that....

It's not the first time I've read of it, nor will it be the last....

Are you following the news on all the crappy little fishing boats etc. filled to the brim with refugees fleeing all kinds of conficts around the world, capsizing (there have been quite a few lately).

I thank God that I live in a country where I have a roof over my head, food on the table and freedom....

Poor guy, poor family (who will keep up hope for contact sooner or later).
There's so many of them

By the description, it does not sound as if he was frozen.

All those who say they feel sorry for him because he was so desperate, would you have felt sorry for him when he was discovered as an ILLEGAL immigrant/possibly a member of a terrorist cell?

yes of course it is sad that there are people around the world who are so desperate that they will do anything to find a decent state of living but we can't sympathise with those who do it illegally or we'd be over run with people who 'don't exist'.

By all means go air it the legal way and come to Britain to live and better your life but the sad fact is we can't let everyone in.

The people who cram on fishing boats have roofs over their heads and food on the table.

They are not the poor on the street in their own countries, they get charged 2k or more to smuggler gangs to get them on those boats, they do so because of stories of coming to the UK or Europe etc working for a few years and going home as millionaires, able to build mansions and have miles of farmland.

Apologies, I thought it was fairly common knowledge that people do hang on to the wheels/landing gear. You don't end up in the hold though, not properly. You have to hold on the whole way. Which is why it is sheer lunacy to try it.

By the way, i'd still have had sympathy if this was the case and he'd made it here as an illegal immigrant. I count myself lucky not to even have to imagine a hundredth of the horrors some people have to live through. Some illegal immigrants are deserving of our help and protection. But that's another thread.

"Apologies, I thought it was fairly common knowledge that people do hang on to the wheels/landing gear."

No. This is the first time I have ever heard of it. We don't live near an airport so we haven't had any dead bodies drop on us round here.